Phantom of Beika Street
by Katreal
Summary: Ayumi once claimed Kudou’s house was haunted. It wasn’t back then, not until a hunted half-ghost girl made it her home. A wrong flight sends a weak and tired Danni Phantom to Tokyo, trying to find a place to rest outside of Vlad's long reach. DP/DC cross
1. Chapter 1 Hunted

_**Disclaimer: I don't own any recognizable people, places, or characters. Danny Phantom and Detective Conan both belong to their respective peoples and not me. Nope, Katreal does not own either one of the shows.**_

Chapter 1 - Hunted

Breathe in, breathe out, inhale, exhale, her heart was pounding in her ears, beads of sweat forming on her temple and slowly making their way down the side of her face. Danielle—Danni threw a quick glance behind her, reassuring herself that she'd lost the pursuer, pausing to lean against the building's wall to catch her breathe. She couldn't take this much more…Constantly hunted, constantly on the run…From Amity to Seattle, and then down to Los Angelus, she'd been chased all up and down the coast, and by now she'd just had it. Ghost birds and hunters, all sorts of nut-cases, they always managed to sniff her out.

Danni straightened up, drawing on some of her last bits of energy; she had to get out, had to get racing. But how? Where? There didn't seem to be anywhere she could run, she needed a chance to just think it over, and what better time than now? She'd left behind her pursuer, and her ghost sense would warn her should it catch up. So for the time being she just stood there and thought, satisfied enough with her safety to spare a moment or two. She had to think of something, some place to feel safe. It was obvious that she wouldn't find it in the states. Vlad had far too much influence, his arm was long. She was almost certain that he'd manage to find her anywhere on the continent.

The only place she felt somewhat safe was in Amity, but she could not bother her 'cousin' by bringing her problems to him, he had enough on his plate with the local ghost plague. Maybe she just needed a change of location, a place where Vlad couldn't find her.

Two rings of blue white light formed around her waist, slowly traveling along her body and replacing her black and white outfit with a blue sweatshirt and red shorts. She shook out her now black hair and looked thoughtful for a moment, mulling over the new idea that was forming in her head.

"Maybe…" She mused aloud, periodically scanning for any unfriendlies in the immediate vicinity. Her ghost sense had yet to go off, so she considered herself relatively safe for the moment and wasn't too worried about being overheard. She began to search through her pockets, looking for anything that could help the idea evolve into a reality. Unfortunately her hunt only served to produce about a dollar in quarters and two nickels…not really enough for an airplane ticket, or even a bus fare.

One irritated sigh later and Danni started chewing on the inside of her lip, toying with a way to go through with her plan despite her lack of income. It would push her moral boundaries and it would be the first step toward using her powers for personal gain like Vlad did, but she was getting sick of being run all over the country, and her ghost half longed to find a place to claim as her own (Much like Danny's claim over Amity).

She was startled out of her thoughts as her breath hitched and pale blue smoke floated on the still autumn air. A ghost was nearby! Danni pulled herself together and ran to the end of the alley, the cold prickling feeling continuing as the ghost stayed within sensing range. The alley poured open into a much larger street, and the afternoon crowd was there as predicted, giving her enough cover to duck into—there were times she loved being so small!

She saw it as she looked up through the people around her. It was there, hanging in the sky like an overgrown vulture, but it wasn't the trio of birds that Vlad usually employed. Its countenance was far more sinister, and it was larger, far larger. The ghostly bird swooped lazily above the crowded street, but not one face turned toward it, because no full human seemed to see it. Fiery red eyes swept the oblivious people, searching. Quick thinking urged Danni to rip off her red hat, stuffing it inside the pockets of her baggy blue sweater. Red was a noticeable color, and would be far more likely to draw the ghost's eye than the black of her hair.

It worked, and she managed to give herself a mental pat on the back as the bird circled the street a few times, every time its eyes slid right over her as though she were nothing but a normal human going about her every day life. She had to resist giving a shout and yelling something about the bird's impaired eyesight but thought better of it. While the bird wouldn't hear her—it was flying away, probably following the ecto-signature of some other random ghost (every city had a few ghosts, but not many bothered humans beyond the usual 'haunting mischief', Amity was unique in that it really attracted the dangerous ghosts.) she didn't want to deal with the strange looks given to her by the people around her.

Danni watched the retreating green form before muttering to herself, "I hear Hawaii is quite nice this time of year."

Screw the moral problems, stowing away in the cargo hold of a plane wouldn't hurt anyone. She hated this game of cat and mouse, and what better way to escape than to leave the house?

* * *

Well, so far so good. After working out a few kinks in her plans Danni had wasted no time putting them into action. It was why she was now currently walking through the halls of one of Los Angelus' airports. Yes, walking. She'd changed her appearance somewhat, so if Vlad ever found a reason to look at the surveillance tapes he wouldn't recognize her right away. Once again the red hat was stuffed in her jacket, which was tied around her waist and hiding a good portion of her red shorts from the ceiling mounted cameras. A black tank top finished off her outfit, and the fact that she'd let her hair down completed the disguise. It wasn't fool proof; if Vlad ever got a really good look at her he would be able to tell with ease, but it was enough to hopefully keep him from needing a closer look.

Danni stopped in front of a large screen showing the departing flights, and scanned it for the one she was looking for, reading the names under her breath (she often talked to herself, after months without social contact she was pretty sure it was one of few things keeping her sane), "Gate 20…Flight 265 Beijing…21…Flight 323 Tokyo…22…Ah, Flight 332 Honolulu."

She took note of the gate and time before continuing through the airport halls, her stomach rumbling a little as she passed a few restaurants or snack stands. The ghost girl ignored it the best she could; only shooting one wistful glance before forcing herself to move on.

One might wonder why she didn't just move around invisible, it would do a far better job of erasing her tracks on the security tapes, and intangibility would allow her to just phase through walls directly to get inside the plane. The answer was a simple one, she didn't want to risk her powers short-circuiting before she needed them. Her DNA was still highly unstable, which led her powers to be unpredictable at best.

Danni finally reached the cluster of gates that included nineteen through twenty-nine, and eyed the security checkpoint warily. This was about as far as Danni Fenton could go (She considered herself a Fenton because of two points. 1) She was born from Danny Fenton's DNA and 2) She loved the Fenton/Phantom conversion) and so it was time to bring out Danni Phantom. The blue-eyed girl spotted a restroom not far down the hall, and used one of the stalls to initiate the change into her ghostly form. Luckily the bathroom was empty, so she examined herself in the mirror. Her two piece uniform was far too conspicuous to walk around visible. It wasn't quite as odd looking as Danny's (the male halfa's really was a one piece jumpsuit. At least Danni's could be mistaken for a shirt and bellbottom pants with a strange color scheme) but the symbol smack-dab in the middle of the shirt was known even as far away from Amity as Los Angelus, and along with her white hair and glowing eyes she didn't want to know what kind of rumors might be sparked that would end up traveling back to Amity, or more likely, Wisconsin.

A faint tingle spread throughout her body with nothing more than a thought, and her reflection faded from the mirror, indicating the invisibility was at work. Another silent command had a cold, numb feeling joining the tingle, reassuring her that intangibility was also working as usual. Danni turned away from the now-empty mirror and phased through the wall, she didn't have much time before there was a danger of her powers shorting out.

The security checkpoint proved to be little trouble, since she cut through the walls around the scanners. She wasn't sure if the scanners would pick up on her if she did try to move through them, but she really didn't want to risk it. She spent a little extra energy phasing through the walls and out onto the tarmac, the huge airplane parking lot. Danni scanned the gate numbers, remembering that nineteen through twenty-two was on this side and twenty-three to twenty-nine were on the other side of the terminal.

There were only two planes on the tarmac as she settled down on the pavement, not wanting to waste more energy on floating. The numbers that rose up behind the two planes were 21 and 22, which was weird since the departures list had stated that the flight to Beijing should have already been boarding. Danni shrugged, chalking it up to a mechanical error and started jogging toward the two planes she could see.

Upon reaching the gate she froze as the cold and numb feeling faded away, leaving her completely visible to the men working on loading the flight. Only one managed to spot her, and addressed her in a gruff, annoyed voice, "Now 'ow the hell did you get out here, missy?"

Later, she would admit that she could have handled the situation better, but going into the entire operation she'd been so nervous, and the short circuit of her powers sent her into a bit of a panic. She kicked off the ground and grabbed once more at her failing power. Amidst the man's gasp, invisibility worked, but intangibility refused to cooperate. Instead of phasing through the plane to get to the hold as she'd planned, she was forced to swoop through the steadily closing cargo-bay doors and dive right into the piles of baggage as invisibility frizzed out again, forcing her to return to her human form. Trembling from the effort, Danni decided to curl up in the maze of bags to regain her energy. A small droplet of green liquid formed on her forehead as she quickly placed herself into a deep sleep—it was the only real way to stop the degeneration before it started and began to suck away even more of her precious energy.

Meanwhile, the plane began to taxi out of the gate, the pilots unaware of the stowaway since the baggage worker decided to keep his mouth shut after the strange looks his companions gave him. He muttered something along the lines of 'Damn Heat' before turning to the rest of the crew, and jerking a thumb beyond the gate and to the smaller plane resting at the end of this section of gates—it had been hidden behind the much larger flight 323, "Alright boys, time for flight 332."

Danni woke up to the sound of voices, yelling at each other in a language other than English. Groggily she initiated the change, the white-silver beams flashing as she shifted into her ghost form. The groan of machinery coming to life soon drowned them out, and a faint light shone through a growing crack in the cargo doors as they began to grind open. The ghost girl groped for her powers and felt them respond, allowing her to rise up through the plane and exit out of the roof. Once she got above the airport's floodlights, she was shocked awake, staring out at the towering buildings, blazing with light even in the—probably—early morning. She could see some lit signs along the mostly empty streets, written in symbols she'd never seen before, but could easily read thanks to Vlad's tinkering.

'Tokyo Airport' The sign read as if it was English to her, easily and without thought. She'd noticed something similar with Spanish when she snuck a look at Danny's mostly unused textbooks, but didn't think much of it at the time. She wasn't really sure of what to think about being in a completely different country. On one hand, it was out of Vlad's sights, and he'd never think that she'd run to Japan of all places; she hadn't even thought of it herself. On the other hand, it _was_ a completely different country…

Hopefully it wouldn't be that bad, she thought as she picked an empty looking street and transformed back to her human self, not wanting to waste anymore ecto-energy when she might need it later.

"Look at it this way," she began, using her voice to cover up the strange, unfamiliar silence, "I've always wanted to go to Japan."

* * *

Meeh, yeah, it's another story. I've had this idea in my head since I read that Ayumi thought the Kudou house was haunted and read the really wonderful DP/DC crossover that is the "The Impossible Murder" by Billie Jukes. If you haven't read it, go read it! It. Rocks.

Anyway, Danni is obviously the main charrie, but it's set in the DC-verse. Kaitou Kid will be in it obviously—actually, he'll have a major part—as will Conan and some of the other charries. I hope this little experiment turns out well. I don't have an update schedule for this though. A few chapters are written already but looking back on my other stories…/_winces_/ Well, all I can say is that I'm governed by my muse. Whatever I'm interested in is what I'm gonna write about. This is also my attempt to get me back into Detective Conan for Luck and Masq. It's kinda like piggybacking on my current Danny Phantom inspiration thingy…maybe it'll get me back into DC…

And yes, the title is a play off of the DC movie Phantom of Baker Street. Unoriginal, I know, but meh. I'm open for suggestions.

Here's to hoping someone likes this…

**Edit (3/30/08): An anonymous reviewer recently raised some valid questions I would like to address here, in case it ever becomes an issue with future readers.**

**First off, the timelines. Danny Phantom wise, this takes place after Infinite Realms, but before D-stablized. Now, I don't know the length of real time between the two episodes, so I will be taking some liberties with that. Detective Conan isn't as definite, but somewhere before Movie 8.**

**Second, Danni's instability. I know basic powers usually don't cause shorts, but I figure if her energy reserves get too low even they will have issues. As of this chapter, and even the next, Danni has had little to no sleep, only the barest minimum of food (she has morals and only steals when she needs to) and has been living in a constant state of high alert-ness/fear since the events of Kindred Spirits. Given enough rest and food her powers will even out (with the exception of the more advanced ones) and flight/invisibility/intangibility will cease to be an issue.**

**I hope that helps clear things up!**

R&R

TBC…


	2. Chapter 2 Paranoia

Chapter 2

All she remembered was falling asleep, and even that was littered with torn fragments of uncertainty, gaps and fuzziness that accompany food and sleep deprivation. It wasn't anything unusual; she'd been living this way for so long…she couldn't remember anything better. She could, however, remember far worse, and those memories often served to remind her how lucky she was to remain free and undetected by her 'father'.

Danielle—Danni couldn't suppress a shiver at the thought of that man, burrowing deeper into the warmth that wrapped around her. It was because of him that she was on the run, that she was hundreds of miles from 'home' (of course, her home was tentative at best and wasn't even her's. It was her cousin's.) She curled her small frame into a ball, her sleepy mind wondering absently where the surrounding warmth was coming from, or when the cardboard box got so soft and comfy. For the first speculation, she supposed she could have grabbed an old blanket from the pile of junk during her sleep (It'd been known to happen, she subconsciously knew how to take care of her body, and warmth was near essential). The second wasn't quite so straight forward, but plausible. Danni supposed she could be so used to the hard ground, that even cardboard felt as soft as a bed.

Her consciousness settled down again, suspended somewhere near the realm of dreams. It wasn't often she wasn't awoken by something or another, random pedestrians, police officers, or just the sounds of a city during the day, so her body relished the chance to replenish more of the energy she'd been so sorely lacking lately. It had been hard to grab the amount of sleep she'd needed for the past few days, not after the long sleep on the flight over a week ago. But it wasn't just her screwed up schedule, but the police had been running all around her current haunt these past few days, and she really was considering searching for a new one. She didn't know what was going on, and to be frank, there wasn't much she could do if she _did _know. The slightest bit of ghost related news (or Pariah-forbid, a picture) and she would have at _least_ three old geezers flying down to Tokyo, Japan along with a little green blob inside a large metal suit. Her father wouldn't let the loss of an expensive (not to mention infuriating) cloning experiment go if he could help it.

Her dream-muddled mind suddenly perked up, her nose twitching as a tantalizing aroma drifted toward her. It wasn't far away, and the smell of food was like the alarm clock to wake the beast—her poor neglected stomach jerked awake, demanding that she fill it with the source of the smell. As her conscious mind worked on shrugging off the dregs of sleep her body moved on its own accord, turning intangible and phasing through the blanket draped over her. Her feet touched down lightly on the floor and she stabilized, ignoring the woozy sensation that always came with using her base powers when she was running on fumes. Completely unaware of her surroundings—she would realize later that such a state was NOT a smart idea to be in, but for the moment she was too tired and hungry—she navigated through the area, using nothing but her nose to guide her to the blessed food.

* * *

A middle age woman hummed softly to herself in the kitchen, cleaning up the small mess made by the light lunch she'd just prepared. She was planning on checking on their guest, and if she was awake, to offer the newly crafted lunch. If not, she'd just set it in the fridge for later, it was no big deal either way.

The thought of the child brought a halt to her humming, making Hiromi pause in her cleaning of the pan. The poor girl…She looked half starved when her son brought her home. Judging by the state of her clothes and, well, her overall appearance, she'd been on the streets for some time. It sent pangs to her heart to think of such a young kid alone in a large city like Tokyo, which was why she didn't put up much of a fuss when her son brought her home and asked to let her stay for a while.

Hiromi shook her head, picking up the plate containing the lunch and moving it to the table so she could wipe off the counter. The towel soon glided effortlessly across the table top, wiping up droplets of spilt broth as well as crumbs left behind by the half of toast. She wrung the towel dry over the double sink, before folding the dish-rag in half and letting it hang dry on the faucet. Finished with the household chores she turned around and blinked twice—the food was gone.

A faint smile played across her lips as she moved quietly toward the table, placing a hand on the warm cloth-covered wood where the bowl of soup once sat. Hiromi gave a quick glance to the floor around the table, but didn't notice any spills, no matter how minute. That left only one hiding place.

She bent her knees and sunk to the floor, using one hand to slowly life the edge of the dangling table cloth which allowed her to peer underneath the furniture. She bit off an amused laugh as she caught sight of the scene beneath the table, the sleeping girl curled around the empty soup bowl, and small toast crumbs sprinkled across her cheeks and the floor. It was a cute scene, and would have been cuter if the girl's face wasn't so gaunt from lack of food, a sharp reminder.

_She must have been hungry._ Hiromi mused, gently extracting the dishes from the girl's loose grip and placing them in the sink to be washed once she returned the nameless one to her room. _I never even heard her come in._

_And she must be exhausted to fall right back asleep. _Her thoughts darkened with worry, the faint possibility that the child might be sick hovered in her mind. She'd have to arrange a doctor's appointment; just to be sure that everything was all right.

Hiromi sighed and went about collecting the sleeping body, taking a quick glance at the clock and wondering if the girl would wake again before Kaito got home from school. She knew he was worried; she nearly had to push him out the door to get him to leave her side. As Hiromi tucked the child into the guest bedroom's bed she let a small smile flicker to life, she was glad that her Kaito was such a kind boy.

* * *

_A white cape…_

_Vlad?_

_It couldn't be._

_Right?_

_He can't have found me._

_Impossible!_

…_Right?  
_

* * *

The next time of waking went far differently from the first, instead of slow and gradual it was abrupt. It was most likely a result of the seemingly boundless energy coursing through her, the fruits of decent food and sleep ended up reenergizing her despite the constant drain caused by her unstable form. She nearly sprang awake, clear blue eyes snapping open as she fully realized the implications of the warm, not tattered, blanket wrapped around her, as well as the near feather soft bed beneath her.

Danni could not remember her earlier state of half-waking, and she acted accordingly, with suspicion and mistrust as she scanned the bare, but homely bedroom. Her hair was unbound, and her clothes had been changed from her normal rags to a slightly larger set of navy blue silk pajamas. Her normal outfit and hat were hanging on the back of a simplistic, but elegant looking wooden chair, the worst of the grime and dirt washed off, but the ware borne of constant use still remained and most likely always would.

Cautiously she slipped out of the covers, not daring to use her ghost powers for fear of hidden surveillance. The ghost girl crept 'round the room, combing every nook, cranny, and piece of furniture for something, _anything_ that would scream out 'Vlad's Plan's!' and free her of the suspicious uncertainty. Surely, it wasn't Vlad's normal style, she was fairly certain that should he capture her she'd be waking up in a vat of green liquid goo, in the middle of her 'father' vivisecting her to discover why she held together for so long when all the other clones failed.

Eventually she gave up pacing about the room, heading over to the chair and near snatching the clothes from the back-rest, feeling slightly more secure out of the strange, foreign pajamas. She adjusted the red hat nervously, leaving her hair unbound for lack of a tie. It was just too weird, too quiet. If it weren't for the fact that her developing paranoia was insisting that there was something wrong she'd just turn intangible and walk right out of the room, leaving behind all fears of crazy, fruit-loopy, half-ghost millionaires.

She had her back turned to the door, giving the room one more sweep and to see if there was anything else she might have missed, when there was a prickling sensation on the back of her neck much like the feeling that always accompanied her ghost sense. The only difference was the lack of light blue mist among her short, harried breathes. It made her whirl around, trailing hair momentarily blinding her until it settled over her shoulder.

Standing in the doorway was someone she'd never seen before. He was tall, forcing her to crane her neck to get a good look at him. He didn't set off her ghost sense, didn't look threatening or evil with his slightly roguish looks and the normal Japanese high school uniform (she'd seen many of the kids in similar uniforms while on her own, one of her favorite hobbies was people watching.) But she remained wary, Vlad was not beyond using human pawns his little games, Valerie was case and point of that.

"Calm down little kitten." The youth held out his hands, revealing that he wasn't hiding anything from her, and to prove that he meant her no harm. Warm blue-violet eyes shone good-naturedly from beneath wild dark-brown bangs, tempered a little with concern and minute amounts of relief. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Danni didn't find any of this reassuring; instead it merely confused her even more. Her lips thinned, her eyes narrowed before she snapped out, "Oh? Then what would you do with a kidnapped kid?"

If her comment angered him, he didn't show it, the smile not wavering. He leaned back against the door frame, crossing his arms against his chest before reply calmly, as if discussing the weather with someone his own age, and not discussing kidnapping with a child, "I wouldn't quite call it kidnapping. Normally I leave runaway kids for the police to handle."

She froze at the mention of police, her mind grasping just how close she'd been to discovery. Even the Japanese police would be able to dig up the 'Missing Person' notice Vlad had circulated after her escape, and they would surely update her 'father' on his 'runaway daughter's whereabouts. Her safety in Japan would be gone, which was one of the reasons she had snuck aboard that airplane and smuggled herself into the country. Vlad's influence wasn't quite international yet.

She knew her frigid silence and sudden lack of breathes had been noticed by the teenager, so she slowly forced herself to breathe, trying to lessen the impact of her sudden halt. A sad, knowing smile spread across the teenager's face before he continued the thread of conversation as if he hadn't noticed "But it was raining last night if you don't remember—" Of course she did, it was why she had decided on sleeping in the handy-dandy nearby box. "and you know full well that box wouldn't have made it through the night."

Her glare didn't let up, and after a short few moments of staring contest he finally sighed and stepped out of the room and into the hallway, gesturing down the hall, "If you really can't accept my concern, then you can go if ya want. The front door is just down the hall."

Danni couldn't help the expression of dumbfounded surprise, the wide eyes and raised eyebrows easily indicative of how she felt about his statement. What was he playing at? At this point, it didn't really matter; he was offering her what she wanted, freedom, without making her look like anything but an ordinary, distrustful runaway. The ghost girl scrutinized him, before making a dash for it, her unbound hair trailing behind her like a dark plume of smoke. As she made her escape, she heard his words again, following her, "If you change your mind, don't hesitate to come back."

She craned her neck to see over her shoulder, checking to see if he had followed her around the corner of the hall leading to the front door. With the coast clear she willed herself intangible, barreling straight through the wooden door and onto the freedom of the street. She didn't turn back as she kicked herself into the sky, maintaining her cover of invisibility as she headed back into the heart of the city, where she was just another face in the crowd. Where no one would pay her any mind, where no one would see her any differently from one of the hundreds of other street strays that wandered the alleys of Tokyo.

But one of them had. One now glowing green eye glanced over her shoulder, at the house that was now indistinguishable from the others in the neighborhood. Now that the unbridled wind soothed her, she thought back over the entire incident, replaying it in her mind. It really was a shame she never even learned his name.

But in the end, did it matter? It wasn't like she'd ever see him again.

* * *

Kaito palmed his face as he lay back against the wall, turning the motion seamlessly into a faint kneading of his temples as he considered everything that had just happened. The poor girl was definitely freaked over something, and was far more afraid of being found than most of the others of her nature. Seeing the pure, unbridled fear was what had made him decide to let her go so easily, but in the end, if you really thought about it he couldn't have kept her here if she really wanted to leave. His mother wouldn't be happy, she'd gotten over-protective of the little girl during her very short stay (Kaito figured it was because she'd always wanted a daughter) and would probably skin him alive once she found out that he'd let her go back to the streets.

The teenager pushed himself away from the wall, and he (much slower than the child's near run) made his way to the front door of the house. Peering out onto the street, he could see neither hide nor hair of his temporary house guest, but all in all he wasn't surprised, children were a lot more adept at hiding in plain sight than adults were.

With a shrug and a final glance down the road he turned back inside, locating his school bag for the homework he needed to do for tomorrow. Maybe he'd check up on the missing person's list later, just to see if he could find a name to match to the defiant face he remembered. He didn't really know why, but he had a feeling he'd end up seeing her again. Not by his design, but whether by accident or her choice he wasn't quite sure.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for the four people who reviewed! A friend of mine bugged me to put up this chapter, and since she's in the same room as me _/eyes Shiko/_ it's kinda difficult to say no. Thank her for the chappie being so soon. Next chapter, the Kudou home gains a new resident.

Oh yeah, before I forget. I have no pairings in mind for this one. Whether that'll change in the future all depends on what the characters decide to do. I'm keeping an open mind with this one. Drop a note if you have a suggestion, though no promises.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3 Settling In

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It had been three weeks since she'd been picked up off the streets and had moved her base of operations accordingly. For the first day or so she'd been so alert and on the look out for that boy that she had worn herself out. Hiding from a human was far worse than a ghost. After all, she could sense ghosts, and there weren't very many around Ekota and Baika. The entire place was teeming with humans, but there was only one she was trying to avoid. She'd moved quickly out of Ekota after the incident, spending most of her time in the neighboring district, Baika. She still patrolled Ekota, still considered it part of her newly defined territory, but her base had been shifted.

It was actually a good thing, opening up new possible locations for her. She'd recently found a rather comfortable rooftop not far from the local high school, Teitan. It was a rather large house, fenced in by a high wall. She'd only ventured inside once, a little guilty about breaking and entering even if it was just to steal a few hours of dry sleep in the attic. There didn't seem to be anyone living in it, and of the time she'd spent on the roof she'd yet to see any enter or exit the house. There were no lights on at night, no noise. People didn't even seem to pay the house any mind with the exception of a few.

There was an old man that came by every day to pick up the mail. There were a couple of kids who came to the gate and gawked, whispering in quiet voices. And finally there seemed to be a teenaged high school girl—maybe about Jazz's age—who came by every other day or so to look sadly at the house before moving on. Danni hadn't seen her around the past few days, and she wondered at times if she'd finally stopped coming. As it was, Danni was currently leaning towards two conclusions. First, the family had moved out. Or second, someone had died and the rest moved out and didn't have the heart to sell it.

Danni sighed and lay back on the rooftop, stopping her musings for the moment. She'd been enjoying her time here since she'd moved, there hadn't been any ghosts that ventured within sensing distance, and she'd managed to secretly catch a few robbers and drop them off tied up near the police station. The downtime had been doing wonders for her powers too, letting them stabilize as much as possible without the missing bit of DNA she needed to tie her ghost and human halves together.

In truth she'd been getting a little bored, but boredom was nice after the constant chase she'd led Vlad's cronies on, and was even considering settling down. After a life (literally, except for the month or so living with Vlad following her birth) of constant running it was nice to just relax in one place. Her ghost half was even producing an overprotective-ness of the two districts of Tokyo, a need to defend her territory. She figured this was what Danny felt when he looked out over Amity, whether it be from among the clouds or his parents Ops center. It was kind of scary, to be tied down, but at the same time it gave her a sense of purpose she'd never experienced before.

A rumble of thunder broke through her thoughts, drawing her eyes up to the slowly darkening sky. Dark grey clouds had been slowly overtaking the blue all day, and now it seemed to have finally conquered. With a sigh she turned herself intangible, sinking through the roof and into the musty attic. She only retreated into the house when it was raining. If she didn't see any signs of life before another week passed, then she would venture further, if only to see if she could solve the curious mystery about the family.

Danni touched down lightly on the dust covered floor. Her ghost form didn't disturb the thick layer, leaving no sign of her presence. The faint glow of her aura managed to light up the place, allowing her to navigate to what she'd dubbed her 'room'. It was nothing more than some old furniture stowed in the corner of the attic, near a small window that looked out over the neighboring house—the old man's if she was correct. She padded over to the window, putting her white-gloved hand against the glass. There was a layer of dust and grime against the window, blocking most of the view. She sighed and shifted forms, a bright white light flashing as the two rings traveled quickly along her body.

Danni's human hand wiped away a spot of the grime on the window, letting her look out at the steadily falling rain. It reminded her of that night three weeks ago, and with a slightly nostalgic feeling she realized that it had been the last time she'd talked to anyone.

"I may be safe, but if I don't get some human interaction I'm going to go crazy." Danni muttered, kicking up a little bit of dust as she walked over towards the only messily covered armchair. She'd pulled it off the last time she'd come down here, and then tried to redo it, but her handiwork was nowhere as neat as the others. It didn't really matter, since her job was so sloppy it was easy to pull off a second time.

The hybrid clone let the sheet crumple into a pile next to the chair, climbing up into it and curling up much like a cat and drifting off to sleep with the rain acting as her lullaby.

_I really need to contact Danny…_

-_Next Morning_-

"Conan-kun!" Ayumi's shout caught Conan's attention, drawing them out of the thoughts he'd been falling into since Agasa's call earlier that morning. They weren't trivial thoughts by any means; anything suspicious around his empty house always was awarded a priority when it came to mysteries. He was always afraid that the Black Organization—a nasty crime syndicate that dealt with everything from experimental poisons and arms dealing to extortion –would decide to reinvestigate the 'death' of Kudou Shinichi. It was always a very real possibility, ever since Vermouth learned the true effect of the Apotoxin (de-aging instead of death) he'd been worried that she would drop a hint here or there to her fellow "men in black" (and women, but the ones who 'killed' Kudou Shinichi had been men, so the nickname stuck) and they would learn that the high school detective was still living as eight year old Edogawa Conan.

To say the results would be disastrous would be an understatement, but it did no good to think on them. He'd replayed the scenarios in his head so many times that it was becoming redundant.

"Ne Conan-kun!" Ayumi was tugging at his sleeve, trying to regain his attention. Conan grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head when he realized he's lapsed back into the thought, "Sorry, Ayumi-chan, what is it?"

The small black-haired girl had—for once—come alone to his current residence, an occurrence that wasn't usual among the Shounen-Tantei, the group made up of four other primary students as well as himself. The other two boys of the gang, Genta and Mitsuhiko, never let Ayumi go off alone if they could help it.

Ayumi scuffed the sole of her shoe against the floor, finding the wood very interesting for once, "Genta-kun and Mitsuhiko-kun are busy, so I was wondering if you could go to the park with me."

Conan thought it over for a moment; he was getting kinda bored at the Detective Agency. Ran had left the day before for some trip or another, and Mouri was taking advantage of his freedom to crash at a friend's place all day and drink and play mahjong. If he stayed behind all he'd have to do was brood over the significance of a light in the Kudou house's attic. If he went with Ayumi, then he could possibly nudge her into letting him help her with her soccer playing. So far she was the only one who made a conscious effort to aim for the right goal, and he really wished he had someone he could play seriously with. Well, as serious as possible with an eight year old's body.

"Alright." He finally said, turning away before he could see Ayumi's face light up and a bright red color filter into her cheeks. He grabbed his skateboard and a soccer ball before returning to the door, checking to see if the key was still under the mat before locking the door behind him, "Do you mind if we play soccer?"

"N-no. Not at all!" Ayumi nearly bounced as they walked down the steps, delighted to have Conan to herself for an entire afternoon. Conan, of course, was oblivious to the abrupt change of mood, setting the skateboard on the sidewalk after the last step and hopped on. He glanced at Ayumi, before angling his head a little, "Come on, you're light enough that it could carry two."

The girl nodded vigorously, her face gaining even more of the telltale color as she stepped up behind him and went to wrap her thin arms around his waist. Once sure that she wouldn't fall off, Conan started the board rolling, deliberately keeping his foot off the turbo switch. It was just a lazy ride to the park, not a high speed chase after all.

_-1 week later-_

_Hey GhostBoy, _

_I just figured I'd write you a quick email. It won't be long cause I kinda snuck onto the computer to do this, so I'll just cut to the chase. I've decided to take a vacation, so don't expect me to pop in any time soon. Dad is getting unbearable, so I felt getting out of the house might be best. I just decided to send this to you in case you get a little concerned when I don't show up for the one year anniversary of our meeting like we decided and thought Dad had grounded me._

_Anyway, good luck with the pest problem, give Dad my 'greetings next time you see him, will you?_

_Remember, delete this email as soon as you get it._

_Kindred Spirit_

Danni paused as she read over the letter, feeling a little guilty about using the computer in the empty house. She'd been in and out of it many times over the past week, and besides one or two curious kids and the old man who walked over to get the mail no one paid any attention at all to the house. She couldn't see why, it wasn't run down, nor was there any sign of abandonment. Power, internet, and water all worked, and there was usually some food in the pantry (non-perishable of course), it was really strange. Why would someone bother to pay the bills if no one lived there? The only sign of its lack of use was the layer of dust that coated everything, but in places even that was thin enough to suggest recent use.

She was uncertain for a moment, before tapping in a few more keystrokes. The cursor hovered over the 'send' button, debating whether or not to really send it. It would be nice to inform her cousin (calling him 'father' was just weird, though it would probably be more accurate) but there was always the possibility of Vlad monitoring his emails. It wasn't like the annoying millionaire could deduce her location from the information written in the email, but it might give him a lead to look out of the country.

She chewed on her lip for a moment, a nervous habit that she'd been picking up as of late, before her hand left the mouse. Danni hurriedly minimized the window and set the monitor to standby, floating off the chair and through the roof—she needed to think about whether or not to send the email, and she always thought better after flying.

* * *

"It happened again?" Edogawa Conan sat back in the computer chair, holding the phone to his ear with his shoulder. He had been in the middle of working on his school-work when the call came, and listened intently to his aged neighbor as he explained the situation. After doing a quick save he pushed the rolling chair away from the desk, hopping off as the call continued.

"This is getting weird, hakase…" Conan muttered, putting a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Once can be explained away, or even a regular, timed occurrence. But from what you're saying, it varies, and sometimes doesn't happen at all."

After a moment of quiet, the boy nodded his head, "I'll be right there."

One click and the phone was back on its hook, leaving Conan free to gather up a few of his gadgets and grab his skateboard in preparation. He ran out of the house, not even bothering to tell Mouri—he probably wouldn't have been heard over the TV anyways. At the bottom of the stairs the skateboard hit the ground, soon weighed down by the small detective as he kicked off down the road. A sneakered foot hovered near the turbo boost, but didn't press down on it. There wasn't anything urgent about this trip, though from the sound of it, it was curious if not a little unsettling.

The wind whipped his hair around as he sped down the street, heading unerringly toward the neighborhood that used to be his home. Technically it still was, but he couldn't live there anymore since he was staying with the Mouris. The mere thought that someone might be snooping around the Kudou residence sent shivers down his spine. There shouldn't be anyone with a reason to be searching his home…

The dark thoughts followed him as he slowed down to a stop, looking up at the towering gates that led to the Kudou property. They were slightly ajar, left open by his elderly neighbor since the man knew he had trouble opening the gate with his short height. He nudged it open a little more, slipping through before closing it with a little effort. Agasa said that he'd be waiting at the front door, and soon the elderly professor came into view as Conan's skateboard rolled steadily down the long drive.

"Ah! Shinichi!" the professor waved cheerily at the approaching boy, tossing away the pseudonym as he was won't to do when they were alone, "You got here quickly."

"Of course." he hopped off the skateboard, kicking it up and catching it in his hand, "You've told me some pretty interesting things."

Professor Agasa nodded, reaching into his coat and pulling out a disk in a plastic case, "I set up a recording after the first time a week ago, and I caught it twice more since plus the one last night."

Conan's head snapped up, "Last night?" he hadn't been aware it had happened that recently. Perhaps there were traces left? He glanced up at the attic window, forced to squint because of the sunlight reflecting off his glasses. With an irritated sigh he pulled off the disguise component, folding them up and tucking them in the pocket of his jacket before going back to studying the window, "The attic again?"

The old man shook his head, "No actually. It was in the living room. I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't forgotten to collect the mail earlier."

Conan took the disk from the professor, turning the see-through case around in his hand, "Let's go inside and watch this. I want to see exactly what it looked like."

It wasn't long before Conan extracted the keys from his pocket (he still kept a set with him) and unlocked the door, leading the professor to the computer in the library. On the way he kept a sharp eye on the rest of the house, looking for anything that may have been different from the last time he was here. Nothing seemed to be too out of place, and most things even had a thin layer of dust settling over them. He made a mental note to sneak over here one day and clean it up, maybe make a regular visit of it. It still was his home, after all.

Upon reaching the library he moved unerringly toward the computer, kneeling down on the floor to hit the power button. Or he would have if he hadn't been stopped, eyebrows retreating into his bangs. "Ne…hakase…Have you used the computer lately?"

"Eh?" Agasa frowned, his grey mustache quivering with his breathing "No, I haven't been in the house in a month"

"So…" Conan sighed, laying a hand on the machine, right above the green LED light that indicated it was powered on. "It's not that warm, so it hasn't been on for long."

Putting a hand to the carpeted floor he pushed himself to his feet, climbing into the chair and pulling the keyboard close. "Now," he muttered, almost forgetting about the concerned professor that hovered over his shoulder as he worked to bring the screen back to life, "Let's see what they were working on."

The screen flickered to life, and at first all Conan saw was an empty desktop. Nothing seemed to be out of place, much to his disappointment, but more than a quick glance revealed what seemed to be a minimized webpage. He clicked on it, bringing up what seemed to be a completed, but unsent email. He quickly read through it, lips thinning and brows knitting together as a conclusion came to mind, "Hakase…I think we might have a runaway."

"Hmm…if you say so." Agasa tugged on his mustache, rereading the lines on the screen. Afterwards he glanced down at the shrunken teenager, "What are you going to do about it?"

"'_Don't worry about me, I'm as alright as I can be…I just don't think I'll be back anytime soon'"_ Conan quoted the last line, added as a postscript beneath the signature. He sighed, rubbing his temple with the hand not resting on the mouse. It was hard to make a decision on the matter. If he did find the runaway and force them out of his home, then he or she could end up on the streets or worse. Conan didn't think he could do that, and it's not like there was anything overly valuable in the house. His mother had taken most of her knickknacks with her when she moved out with his father. "I think they probably ran away for a reason, so the police are out. It's better if I let them live here, where it is relatively safe."

"It doesn't sound that serious, Shinichi." The professor began, "Until the postscript, all it talks about is an overbearing father and a vacation."

Conan glanced up out of the corner of his eye, "It's a code, hakase. Obviously this "GhostBoy" is someone he or she trusts, but is afraid that he might be monitored. Email isn't the safest means of communication after all, but it might be the only means available. If we hadn't come today, there wouldn't be any noticeable trace of the email, whereas a phone call would show up on the phone bill and I'm pretty sure there weren't any stamps in the house—I never kept any around."

"Still…" Agasa wasn't quite convinced.

"Just trust me. It is my house after all," Conan copied the email into a word processor program and printed out a copy, taking the leaf of paper in hand, "All in all, there's a better chance of solving the mystery if we don't run whoever it is off."

Agasa didn't say anything in response, still looking doubtful about the whole thing. In the end Conan managed to wrangle a promise out of the old man not to go nosing further into it before Conan found out a little more; he had a plan to carry out a search "GhostBoy" and the email addresses. Then once he had a better grasp on the situation Conan felt he should be the one to do the confrontation. The boy folded up the copy and put it into his pocket along with the disk, withdrawing his glasses with the same motion, "In any case, let's get going, I have to wake up Occhan so he is ready for the heist tonight. Thanks again hakase."

* * *

A/N: Sorry, this one jumps around a bit. I marked where the time change was dramatic... I just needed to set things up. Danni found her home, Conan found out about her presence roughly a month afterwards. The beginning of this chappie is three weeks after the incident with Kaito. Conan won't actually meet her or find out about her for a while, so the jig isn't quite up.

Anyways, Kaitou Kid heist coming up, and a certain phantom stumbles across a certain phantom thief.

Remember, reviews are like food for the famished!

Thanks to Hittocere, Shiko, Em Phantom, Yume Li, and isadorathegreat for the reviews. I hope ya'll like this chapter too!

(Hope I'm keeping everyone in character so far…if I mess up for whatever reason, let me know!)

TBC


	4. Chapter 4 Kaitou

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Kaitou

Kid landed gracefully on the rooftop, prize in hand, head turning over his shoulder to look across the small gap between his perch and the neighboring roof. The thief couldn't help a satisfied smirk as his pursuer came up short, barred from continuing the chase by the obstacle. While it was easily doable for Kid, the mini-Holmes chasing him was at most half his height and Agasa had yet to develop an invention that would help bridge that difference. The 'Child Detective' Edogawa Conan glared over the gap, well aware that he was stuck on the wrong rooftop, and cursed the white-clad thief's habit of always being one step ahead of him—or in this case, a leap.

"A little slow today, ne Tantei-kun?" Kid's sing-song voice floated over the wind, reaching the small detective despite the sounds of the police on the grounds below. The thief twirled his spoils—a purloined necklace—around his index finger, the green gem glinting in the police searchlights that had been roving the cityscape, "I think you might be losing your edge."

"Perhaps," the boy ground out, kneeling down to slowly touch a finger to the side of his shoes, tapping twice, "Or I could be lulling you into a sense of security."

He had barely finished speaking when a super-powered kick sent a soccer ball flying across the gap, moving with more than enough force to knock out a full grown man. Kid hadn't been fully caught unawares, always on the look out for stray flying objects when in the detective's presence. With the added force of Agasa's power shoes the ball easily bridged the gap and only Kid's quick reflexes kept him from being brained on the head. As it was, only his top hat was knocked off, freeing his short, messy brown hair to the mercy of the wind, "And watch where you aim that thing!"

"Soo sorry." Conan didn't sound sorry at all, giving the thief a rogue grin that looked completely out of place on his round, child-like face. It belonged to Kudou Shinichi, a high school detective acclaimed to be the modern-day Sherlock Holmes, trapped in a child's body. The Kaitou did not know how it happened, but there was no doubt in his mind that the precocious primary student was indeed the eighteen year old Kudou. There were some times that Kid wondered just how much fun these chases would be if the detective had the entire police force under his control. He had a taste of it once, during his only run in with Kudou before the 'incident'. As it was, the kid was a fun challenge with his gadgets and his brains, although when it came down to actually escaping Kid had the upper hand.

In a bold move the thief turned his back to the fuming detective, scanning the empty rooftop for the errant silk hat. Another ball whizzed by, flying harmlessly overhead as he bent down to search the ground, After a few more dodged inflatable soccer balls (the detective seemed to run out of them if the lull in shots was any indication) the thief straightened up, mourning the loss of his hat, but resigned to the fact that it had probably fallen to the streets below, "I'd love to stay and play with you, but I'm afraid Nakamori would just ruin our fun."

Sure enough, the inspector's loud tones bellowed from the open stairwell behind Conan, instructing all but those guarding the entrances to make way to the rooftop. Kid gave a rueful shake of his head when Conan glanced back down to the stairwell, and then across the gap, suspicious of the thief's infamous vocal range and ventriloquism abilities. Kid just gave a cheery wave in response to the unasked question, shaking his head to indicate that it wasn't his doing—this time anyway.

A quick tug on his glider release caused the contraption hidden beneath his cape to snap open, and Kid moved to the edge of the building, only a short distance from the detective across the way, "Oh, and Tantei-kun? If you find my hat, please return it during the next game."

A barely visible dart sped right past the thief's face, only detectable by the faint shrieking sound as it cut through the air. The monocled kaitou blinked twice in confusion, as the reality sunk in. If Conan had really tried, Kid would be sleeping like a baby right about now.

The child detective still had the stun watch trained on the thief but made no move to pull the trigger, "Get going, Mr. Thief. The game's over this time, but I'll win the next."

Kid smiled, tossing the gem adorned necklace at the detective, the sparkling green light thrown from it distracting the boy and pulling the watch off target as he moved to catch it. Prize safely in hand, Conan turned back to see the thief give him a salute before he dropped off the edge of the building amidst the yells of the officers that began to pour out of the stairwells. The heated columns of air rising from the streets filled his wings, and soon the scene of the crime was just another rooftop, and his pint-sized rival wasn't distinguishable from a speck of dust. Their relationship was more of a friendly rivalry than really a cop-robber type thing. Kid had a strict code, he never hurt anyone, and the target was usually returned within a few days if he didn't just give it back right away. All in all, the white-clad thief didn't think he listed high on Edogawa Conan's list of 'Criminals to Catch', but he knew that the not-child appreciated the games they played, especially since the kaitou had a tendency to speak to, and treat him as if he were an equal, his real age.

After the glider has flown a sizable distance, Kaitou Kid angled downward, feet touching down lightly on the roof of an apartment building not far from his neighborhood. The glider's wings folded and slid beneath his white cloak, once more hidden from view.

'Some thief, all you do is pick on kids.'

"It's a mutual game, I assure you." Kid responded smoothly, not at all perturbed by the sudden comment from the empty rooftop. He didn't think it was Snake; the man would shoot first and only then make demeaning comments. He didn't think it was Nakamori and his goon squad; they would play 'pile-on-the-bandit' first and exchange witty banter later. Nakamori had already thrown his pre-heist insults for the night and according to their unwritten code he wouldn't continue with them until after he had Kid in a nearly impossible situation. Of course, he wasn't in one now; he stood on the edge of the roof, limbs completely mobile and free, and his glider still functioned perfectly. It would only take a moment and a flick of a switch and the thief could be winging out of harms way once again.

The Kaitou turned around nonchalantly, making a sweep of the rooftop for the unexpected critic. It didn't take him long to find it when a shape materialized out of the shadow of a small outcropping; a small building which housed the stairwell down into the main complex. The moonlight fell across what seemed to be a child, wearing some odd sort of black and white ensemble. He didn't really pay too much attention, eyes being drawn immediately to the disturbing familiar white top-hat on the kid's head, "Hey! That's my hat!"

'It is?' Now that he thought about it, the voice sounded decidedly female, even if it did have an odd, kind-of echoey tone to it. He couldn't see much of the girl's face, his own hat brim blocking his view of the upper-half of her face. It made sense, it was much too big for her to wear comfortably, and had probably just fallen down. 'I guess I ended up stealing it from a thief then huh?'

The kaitou chuckled, "A thief who already returned what he stole. May I please have it back?"

The child seemed to consider his request, before the small shoulders shrugged impassively, 'If you insist.'

She suddenly tilted her head forward, giving him an easy view—even in the shadows cast by the moonlight—of nearly luminescent green eyes. He didn't get much of a chance to wonder over the revelation before she threw the hat off her head, sending it quite high into the sky, 'But you gotta catch it first!'

Without thinking Kid leapt for it, not willing to let the wind steal it away and blow it off the roof. He caught it easily, hooking it with his index and middle fingers, before landing on the concrete safely, "Pf, easy—"

He paused, putting it back on his head thoughtfully, "Where'd she go?"

The rooftop was empty once more, no sign remaining of the little girl.

"Ah well," He muttered, straightening the piece of white headwear, pausing momentarily to note that the fabric was oddly cold for the warm night. He shrugged the detail off as unimportant for the moment. On a whim the thief's voice suddenly rang out, "Oi, kid!"

There was no answer except the buildings echoing his own voice back. He had no doubt the girl was still around, he would have heard the metallic opening and closing of the heavy metal door if she'd gone inside, and there wasn't any other way off the roof. Well, unless she could fly.

"Thanks." He didn't expect an answer as he turned away, figuring he should let the strange girl believe she'd won with her little disappearing act. It had been well done, distracting him with his hat and then using the resulting moment of inattention to hide in the shadows again. The white-suited thief stepped up on the small ledge around the rooftop, reaching inside his cape for the switch to activate the glider. It would only be a second before he was winging off into the night—

Or it would have been if the 'You're welcome!' ringing in his ears didn't cause him to suddenly whirl around. If he hadn't been Kid he would have probably tumbled off the edge of the building, but since his persona was well known for grace and near-impossible acrobatic feats it would take more than a little scare to make him lose his balance. Kaitou Kid scanned the rooftop—there was no way the kid could have sounded so close yet still stay hidden. No way.

The thought kept circling around in his mind as he prowled the rooftop, finding no trace of the strange girl no matter how carefully he checked each nook and cranny. The shadows behind and around the stairwell were empty, throwing his earlier conclusion out the proverbial window and forcing him to reevaluate the circumstances. The door to the building wouldn't budge, locked securely from the inside. He knew that the door was secured by a strong padlock, just as he'd known the door would make a loud metallic clang should someone open and close it. He'd scouted out this building recently, deciding against going inside as part of his escape plan. It would take less time to just glide to another building instead of trying to work the lock free from the outside.

It should have been impossible for the girl to leave the rooftop, but as the thief stood alone in the oddly chilly wind he couldn't see any way around it. He couldn't help but feel impressed.

'_The kid was good.'_

* * *

Danielle giggled to herself as she flew away from the rooftop, thinking back over her encounter with the intriguing thief. She'd recognized him from one of the purloined newspapers she'd leafed through since her arrival in the city. A thief who returned what he stole; it had sparked her curiosity. It was the only reason she decided against knocking him out and dropping him off at a police station like she normally would when faced with a law-breaker. Danni didn't have any idea what kind of idiocy had possessed her to reveal herself to him, even if it was only to return his hat. If she wanted she could have just dropped it randomly out of the sky in front of him, or even placed it on his head and watched the resulting confusion. Whatever the reason, she was kinda glad. It had felt almost heavenly to speak to another person, face to face, while retaining control of the situation. She wasn't too worried about him mentioning the encounter to anyone, doing so would lead to some questions the thief likely would not want to answer; especially to those on the right side of the law.

The wind felt like a feather's touch against her skin, blowing her hair wildly as she shot through the sky. After a while, she found herself in familiar territory. Danni glanced down at the ground, easily spotting the house she was aiming for. She smiled as she slipped intangible, angling down through the roof easily. She was home.

Her feet settled against the attic floor, silver-blue rings running along her body, and she looked around the cluttered attic. Danni liked being able to say that. Home. She was home. She'd never had a real home before.

The now human girl padded across the wooden floor, climbing up into the chair she no longer bothered to cover-up in the morning. Danni curled up in the comfortable confines of the piece of furniture, now blue eyes fluttering shut as a single thought crossed her mind, '_I never want to give this up…'_

Mr. Murphy took that thought as an invitation to stir things up.

* * *

A/N: This one was fun. It's soo much fun to get into Kaito's head! He has both an interest in Danni's human and ghost sides, even if he doesn't realize they are one in the same. It's not quite as long as my usual chapters, but it got what I wanted done, and is over the 2k mark, so I'm happy with it.

Oh! Here's a little funny Omake written by Hatake Shiko, I thought it was cute so she let me share it with those of you who don't read the review page.

Omake:  
Red mist escaped Conan's lips and he sighed, his left eye twitching a bit. Ayumi looked at Conan strangely before she pointed to the gas which was beginning to disappear.

"What's that, Conan-kun?"

"That's my-"

"Tantei-kun! What a surprise to see you here!"

"Kaito Kid sense..." A white blur engulfed Conan and picked him up before depositing him on a bench.

"See you tonight, Tantei-kun!"

"KID! Get back here!"

"Oops," the thief said with a grin. "I forgot about them... see ya!" He ran off and turned down an alley as 50 or so police men ran after him.

"I think your 'sense' needs to give you a better warning next time," Ayumi said as she blinked.

"Same," Conan said before they started for the park.

Annd. That's it n.n. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and the omake. I've been wondering...should I move the story to the Danny Phantom category, or is it fine here? It's been bugging me lately...

TBC...


	5. Chapter 5 Close Call

Chapter 5 - Close Call

'Di.F._,_

_It was quite a surprise to hear from you, but I'm glad you've managed to get yourself in the clear finally. Don't worry about coding the messages, Tuck had fun with Technus the last time we caught the windbag and has managed to create a pretty secure firewall. Vlad hasn't been able to break it yet. Of course the fruitloop has tried, but the only way for Vlad to get a hold of my messages is to physically check my computer, and I HAVE changed my password so no ribbing me about it, 'kay? I delete the messages right afterward so it doesn't matter much anyway._

_Still, a little discretion (don't laugh, I do know a few larger words) wouldn't be out of the question so you don't need to tell me where you are. Ignore my curiosity, I can deal. How have things been for you? Are your powers acting up? Hopefully there aren't many ghosts wherever you settled down so you can get a chance to chill. Don't get into too much trouble cuz._

-Dy.F.

Danni read over the email, unable to keep herself from giggling at a few choice parts of the missive. The most potent were the mention of the password (honestly, how stupid was Paulina Fenton?) and the large word crack; the two phrases actually brought Sam's sense of dry sarcasm to mind, giving her the impression that at least the dark-loving teenager had been with the boy when he'd written the answer. She held the mouse loosely in one hand, guiding it across the lit screen to hover over the reply field, erasing the previous message just for safety's sake. It wasn't that she didn't trust Tucker's ghost proof system—okay, so maybe that was the reason—but she figured safer was better than sorry. She REALLY didn't want to risk it.

The keys clicked softly in the large library, clear blue eyes trained on the monitor as her reply slowly began to wind across the page. She put in the necessary needling about his obvious password before answering his questions the best she was willing to. It wasn't that she wasn't being truthful; she just didn't feel the need to go into that much detail. Things were fine, better than fine, and her powers were just as unpredictable as ever. She hadn't had any dangers of melting, her reserves managing to remain above the critical levels with her rather relaxed lifestyle. Basic powers worked near perfectly as long as she didn't try and use them for extended periods, but her attempts to delve into the untapped powers that she knew Danny possessed had left her exhausted and shaking which led to degeneration. Experimentation was definitely put on the 'Not to Do' list.

Danni re-read the message at least twice before nodding in satisfaction, depressing the left mouse button over the send option. After the confirmation of a successful delivery the ghost-girl exited out of the browser, habitually setting the computer to shut-down. While she used it for email purposes, Danni still didn't feel right about playing around on it any more than that. It wasn't hers, so she didn't have the right to install and play DOOMED on it, or something of the nature. At times she wished she didn't have that little nagging conscience, she got bored sometimes when she didn't feel like reading.

The little whirring noise that signaled the computer's life had quieted, and she just stood in the middle of the room, drifting off in thoughts of her brief stint in Amity Park. Even though she hadn't spent long there, or even known her 'cousin' very long she felt a keen sense of loss when her thoughts headed down that road. She supposed it was because she'd been created to _be_ him, even right down to his fascination with space and keen sense of justice. She always seemed to feel like something was missing, something that Danny had.

The half-ghost shook her head, who knew that thinking about her cousin would drag up that old train of thought? She was as happy here as she'd ever been, even if she craved the social interaction that a growing teenager usually found in abundance. Maybe that's what she was missing, the network of friends and support that kept a sense of normalcy in the halfa's chaotic life.

As if nipping the heels of that thought, she heard something that was uncharacteristically out of place in this house. Voices, there were muffled voices originating from the hallway. Danni automatically went invisible, torn between fleeing through the walls and out of the house and staying put, curiosity sparking at the first sign of life beyond her in this old building. She hovered near the desk, curiosity outweighing her better judgment, and waited as the voices moved closer.

"For the last time, professor," The youngest walked through the door first, voice dripping with a faint hint of irritation directed at the person following him, "I haven't changed my mind."

Danni was surprised to note that she recognized both the intruders. The youngest—he was smaller than she was!—was probably around 8 or 9, and brown, almost black hair swept across glass covered blue eyes. Looking down at the kid reminded her of a windy rooftop, police lights, and a stand-off between boy and thief. The elder lived in the house next door, and she'd often seen him working in the lawn on some project or another. The title of professor clicked with what she'd seen of the inventor, and the half-ghost filed away the information as the old man spoke up.

"But Shinichi—"

"Conan." The boy shook his head, cutting the professor off, "It'd be better if you called me by that." He added something softer that Danni couldn't make out, steering around behind the desk and pressing the power button for the computer, "I have other things to worry about right now, a ru—" Conan froze in the middle of pulling up some files on the computer, sharp eyes glancing around the library, "Is it just me, or is it really cold in here?"

'_Oops…'_ Danni thought from where she hovered behind the boy. She'd gotten curious about what was so interesting on the computer, but had forgotten that an invisible ghost lowered the room temperature a few degrees within a certain radius. The kid—Conan was definitely close enough to notice, she was less than an inch behind him, completely invisible, intangible, and being a very nosy ghost. She took one last glance at the screen before deciding she'd snooped enough. Still, the boy's presence gave her another prod to continue with her personal mystery, the one about the whereabouts of the owners. She'd noticed some family pictures on the walls, and this kid looked eerily like he came directly out of one of the older ones.

She figured he was probably related, but it still led to the question of where the main family was. Conan obviously didn't live here, and there was nothing to show that a child had occupied the house in any sort of recent time frame. The only possible signs were some old storage boxes with toys up in the attic, but they were outdated by at least half a decade and hadn't been opened in that long if the amount of dust on them was any indication.

Danni left the two down in the library, rising up though the ceiling and into the attic and from there onto the rooftop. She settled down gently on the shingled surface, green eyes looking out over the neighborhood. It probably wouldn't be wise to head back in, especially since the close call she'd had with the kid. She supposed she could just go flying…but for some reason she didn't want to spend the entire day as Danni Phantom…

The ghost girl rose up into the air, floating lazily down, off the roof and over the street, winking into invisibility as soon as she moved into the open. Down the street was a small park and it was there she finally touched down, using a couple of trees to disguise the change from ghost to human. The sound of children laughing came to her ears, drawing her eyes to a playground. A trio of kids was currently chasing each other across the climbing equipment, some with more ease than others, just laughing and carrying on as if nothing else in the world mattered. Danni couldn't help the smile the scene caused, or the sense of peace the park brought about. It was just the standard play set, slide, swings, monkey bars and other knick knacks to climb over and run around. There weren't many differences from ones she'd seen back home.

Danni leaned against a tree, sliding down to sit on the grass. With the kid and the old man around, she didn't want to hang around the house, but this place wouldn't be too bad to wait in. They probably wouldn't be there all day.

* * *

"Did you find out _anything_?"

"Agaasa…" Conan sighed, shutting down the computer and pocketing the disk he'd burned the files onto, "I told you I'd take care of it!"

"I'm just worried Shinichi." The older man shook his head, "It's just strange to even consider that someone else might be in this house, and I never see anyone enter through the door or move across the lawn. Yet the strange lights still glint out the windows and the computer incident…and…"

The well meaning inventor was cut off by a tired motion from the boy beside him. Conan flicked the lights off in the library, motioning for Agasa to follow him into the hallway, "I've already took some steps. I searched the internet for the usernames, and GhostBoy actually came up in a couple listings—mostly online games. This only goes to prove that we're dealing with a kid, and runaway kids are a sticky business."

Conan kept his eyes straight ahead, focused on the familiar route from the second story library to the front door, "If we don't approach the situation carefully, then we could scare him or her off, and then there wouldn't be anything we could do, period. I want to look into contacting this 'GhostBoy' before doing anything about his 'Kindred Spirit'"

A graying eyebrow rose, "And how do you plan to do that? You only have a few games to go by."

"One of which is popular here in Japan." Conan let a small smirk cross his face as he continued, waiting for Agasa to move ahead of him before pulling the front door shut behind him, locking it with the key he always kept on him, "Trust me professor, I have my ways."

They walked up the drive in silence, the boy stopping and retrieving the skateboard that leaned up against the porch. At the gate the two parted ways, but Conan wasn't far down the sidewalk before Agasa called after him, "How do you even know it's the right one?"

"Call it a hunch!" The boy just smiled and hopped onto his skateboard, the wind kicking his hair around as his momentum set the wheels rolling. The professor knew better than anyone the power of Shinichi's hunches, hunches that had sealed the doom of countless criminals over the careers of both Kudou Shinichi and Edogawa Conan. Agasa shook his head as the boy disappeared from his sight, turning the opposite direction into the driveway of his home. If he weren't a man of science, he would have _sworn_ there was something supernatural about that boy's 'hunches'.

* * *

A sudden chill woke Danni up, eyes snapping open in time to see a faint blue mist fade from sight in the air ahead of her. Dang it, she'd been hoping her luck would continue to be spook free. She climbed to her feet, a relieved sigh escaping as she realized the park was deserted, and the kids had probably left before the sun had started to set. A brief spark of energy had the silver-white rings traveling along her body, bringing her ghost side to the front as she scanned the area, looking for whatever had set off her ghost sense.

She couldn't see anything from her current vantage point so she quickly moved above the treetops, glowing green eyes cutting through the steadily darkening sky. She couldn't believe she'd slept so long, but on the upside, she had plenty of energy in case the spook she was sensing wasn't benevolent. Danielle didn't see anything out of place, but her ghost sense kept going off, the blue mist and accompanying chill continually assaulting her.

At length she noticed a growing green light shining from a nearby copse of trees, still in the park. Figuring it was the closest thing that might possibly be ghostly in nature Danni shot toward it, diving under the trees in time for something green to come hurtling at her. The hybrid hit the breaks, but wasn't fast enough as the mass of ectoplasm and post-human consciousness plowed into her, knocking her out of the air and sent her crashing to the ground.

"Ow…Not a good way to get back into the ghost-hunting business," Danielle muttered to herself, picking herself up off the ground and locking her eyes on the floating…thing. It didn't resemble anything she'd ever run across before, nothing more than a half-formed shape that kept shifting, it's only constant a single red eyeball that floated within the mass. Danni made a face; the ghost probably hadn't even finished forming completely before coming from…wherever it came from, "Ew. I think you were let out a little too early."

It screeched at her, nothing more than a wordless expression of rage, and launched through the air, tendrils pulling away from the mass and whipping toward her. Danni ignored her reservations and pulled on her own energy, drawing it into her hands and dodging one of the newly formed tentacles, grabbing the green goop as it whizzed by. The ghost sounded again, this one unmistakably of pain, as the power in her hands sliced through its body, severing it from the main mass.

Danni ignored the growing sense of dizziness, drawing even more energy into her palms and shaping it into a glowing ball. She held onto it as the ghost flew around, weaving in and out of the trees in a crazed flight pattern, waiting for the best shot possible. Her opportunity came when it seemed to get over the pain caused by the removal of one of its limbs (the term just barely applied to the mostly gelatinous monster) and instead launched itself at her in rage, either not noticing the satisfied smirk of her face or not caring—

—right before being blown to ectoplasmic kingdom-come by her waiting blast.

After the resulting explosion died down, the ghost looked like it'd gotten into a fight with a cheese-grater and lost, bits and pieces of goop thrown all over the ground, trees, and one exhausted and annoyed ghost-hybrid. She was shaking, shifting back to human involuntarily, and using all her will-power to keep a puddle of green goo from forming beneath her feet. "O-okay, fighting still a big no-no."

Blue eyes glanced around the area, watching the remains of the proto-ghost dissolve away into nothingness. Without having to worry about being attacked, Danni was able to get a good look at the surrounding area, noticing for the first time the slowly shrinking swirl of green energy that had spawned the ghost attack. She didn't have to stick her head inside to know what it was; she remembered overhearing word of the infamous infi-map incident, and was well aware of randomly spawned, short-lived portals.

There wasn't anything she could do now except leave it to close on its own, there was no way she'd be able to handle another ghost tonight. The hybrid tried to shift back to ghost-mode to fly home, but stopped when the rings reached the mid-way point of their journey, staring in horror at the small bit of ectoplasm that had begun to pool around her shoes. "No! No, no, no—back!"

It seemed to reabsorb into her body as she back-peddled hurriedly, the rings reversing their flow and returning her to just Danielle, the human girl.

"I guess I need to head home the old fashioned way." Still shaking, Danni turned away, leaving the park just as the sun finally dipped below the buildings.

* * *

A/N: Another one done. I'm posting these as I finish the next chapter (which means I finished Chapter 6 n-n). This story is so much fun right now...

Oh yeah, anyone wondering about the timeline...I added a note at the end of the first chapter. The same for those of you who might have wondered why Danni's energy problem was so servere in the first few chapters.

Thanks to those who answered about the category--I figure I'll just leave it where it is. It does focus more on the DC setting, even if Danni is the main character. Also some thanks to those who reviewed, I adore reviews n-n.

Time to go work on Chapter 7...I'm thinking it'll be done this weekend, so 6 should be out around Saturday or Sunday. Hope I'll see you guys then!

(Over 3k this time! _-dances-_)

TBC


	6. Chapter 6 One Step Forward

Chapter 6 – One Step Forward

"So, what exactly are you doing here again?" Haibara Ai glanced at the small boy sprawled across the professor's couch, leafing through what seemed to be a…player's guide? The girl's eyebrow quirked questioningly, grey eyes reading the English word that stretched across the title page. DOOMED? What kind of name was that?

Conan shrugged, eyes not leaving the little booklet as he turned another page, "Mouri kicked me out of the house, muttering something about wanting some 'alone time' after the stunt I pulled at the store."

"Stunt?" Ai repeated with an amused undertone in her voice. She had a feeling there was an interesting story behind that encounter. The way Conan seemed to wince and how he attempted to avoid the subject only served to further her curiosity. She made a mental note to grill him on that later, if only for the entertainment of watching him squirm, and instead asked about the booklet in his hands, "Since when are you interested in American computer games?"

"Oh this?" The boy waved the leaflet vaguely, "It's something I picked up for a case. This game is one of the few clues I have."

The shrunken detective glanced away from the book in his hands, studying the hands of his watch. Apparently what he saw was satisfactory since he nodded and sat up, cracking his back quickly and hopping to his feet, "Mouri's had enough 'alone' time, I think I'm going to head back now and check this thing out."

Conan scooped up a plastic bag from where he'd set it next to the couch, unceremoniously dropping the player's guide inside as he straightened up. "Haibara, can you tell the professor I'm heading back?"

"Sure, sure."

--

From just reading the back of the box, as well as the player's guide, Conan had known that DOOMED wouldn't be the type of game he would enjoy. Creating the custom character was fun, the game giving him the option of tweaking an existing character model or building one from scratch using a very advanced 3D generating program that came with it. His avatar was modeled more after Shinichi than Conan of course, blue and red being the main scheme of the battle-suit. However, after clicking the log-on button, Conan couldn't find much more to enjoy. The goal was a simple one, to collect the seven silver keys before the rest of the players, a few side quests for each of the 13 levels, and plenty of cheat codes and power-ups hidden throughout the game. Once the keys were collected, the winning player was reset back to level one, with a few extra attribute bonuses and upgrades. All in all it was a free-for-all shoot-em-up type game—nothing stimulating for his brain at all.

Conan sighed, not even bothering to move beyond the initial spawn point and instead messed around with the messenger system. There was some sort of 'Friend's List' that he could access, and a part where he could add a certain player and it would tell him when that person was online. That certain feature would come in handy, and he input the user-name 'GhostBoy' right away. The name and a small icon appeared in the other-wise empty window; apparently the icon would light up if the user was logged on to the game.

It was dim at the moment, leaving a slightly frustrated detective behind. On one hand, he understood that it was more than likely that this 'GhostBoy' was in a different time-zone than he was, most native English speaking countries were, but on the other he'd been hoping to get this over with. He'd just have to keep checking back every now and then; hopefully he'd catch this person sooner or later.

--

Kaito couldn't get it out of his head; the blurred recollections of the figure on the roof-top kept dancing on the edges of his mind. Normally he wouldn't let it bother him too much, but he'd been hearing reports of a new vigilante in town, mostly from Aoko's before and after school discussions. Apparently she'd heard it from her dad, who'd gotten it directly from the criminal's mouths. The description given of the pint-sized do-gooder was a small girl, white hair, and green eyes. Kaito hadn't survived this long by writing things off as coincidences and leaving it at that. White hair just wasn't a common color.

Most of the reports of this girl originated from the Baika area, something that led him to wonder if the little detective knew anything about her, and those reports were the reason he'd ventured away from his own base of operations. It wasn't that he was afraid of this unknown vigilante; he was just intrigued, curious. He would never admit it to the detectives that liked to but into both his lives, but sometimes the thief enjoyed a good mystery himself.

He was just on a reconnaissance mission at the moment, checking up on the few places he'd managed to wrangle out of the unusually tight-lipped Nakamori the day before. He'd already checked out a few of the sightings, finding nothing, and had just come from one in an alley way quite near to the Little Detective's home. The morning had faded into afternoon by now, and the thief was running out of leads to follow. He didn't have anything to show from the trip either.

Kaito paused at a street vendor near the local park, purchasing some lemonade just to whet his throat and stave off the thirst that had been building as the temperature steadily rose. He sipped at the cool drink absently, paying the worker and letting his eyes travel along the street. The boy nearly choked mid-sip as he spotted something, waving off the concerned questioning of the vendor before hurriedly heading down the direction he'd seen his target move.

On the other side of the street was one person he wasn't expecting to see. It was a young girl, running full tilt down the sidewalk. The tail of black-hair wasn't what made her instantly recognizable—many Japanese people had the hair-color—but it was the faded blue sweater and the red hat that caught his attention. He remembered when he first saw those two articles of clothing, clinging to a shivering frame trying unconsciously to stay dry in the soaking remains of a cardboard box. He'd been returning from a heist at the time, soaked to the bone himself, but couldn't bare to leave the girl on the street like that—not when the cops would be swarming the area trying to trail him.

In the time since she'd ran out of his house he'd thought about her often, wondering (quite morbidly) if one day he'd open the newspaper and see her obituary. There'd been no matches to her face in the Tokyo Missing Person's list, so he didn't even know her name. At least now he knew she was alive, and in the area.

Kaito finished up the lemonade in a hurry, ignoring the freeze that came from chugging the cold beverage too fast, and tossed the plastic cup in a nearby trash-can. She had a decent lead on him, not to mention she was on the opposite side of the street, but Kaito managed to keep the bright red hat in sight as he slowly, but surely caught up, losing a bit of ground to cross the street, dodging in and out of the slowly growing throng of people.

He cursed quietly as the street got really crowded all of a sudden, and he lost the speck of red among the throng of people. Kaito slowed up, knowing better than to try and force his way through the crowd. His target lost, he spread his attention out to whatever had attracted the spectators, mouth setting slightly with worry as he slowly gleaned information on the happenings.

"…heard he had a gun…"

"…kids in there!"

"…the hostages. The police can't do anything…"

Above the murmur of the crowd Kaito soon made out police bull-horns, telling the spectators to leave the area and to stay calm. He completely ignored the order, pushing and shoving his way to the forefront of the people, going as far as he could before he reached the police blockade. Cop cars had surrounded the entrance to one of the small cafés in the area, using police tape and officers to keep people out and the suspect inside. Kaito recognized more than one of the on-duty police, but couldn't approach them—he'd made their acquaintance as Kid.

The windows to the café were tinted, making the inside difficult to see for the people stuck on the outside. There were some vague shapes, but Kaito couldn't tell which was which—they could have been hostage or the supposedly armed criminal. There was no wonder the police were being careful.

Kaito had begun to wonder if there was a back way in, and how long it'd take for him to get around that way when a sudden shout from one of the officers reached his ears, "Hey kid, you can't go in there! KID!"

Something small, black, and white shot out of the crowd, breaking directly through the police line and making a bee-line for the door. Kaito was only able to confirm the girl's shockingly white hair before the door slammed shut again, an unexpected hush rolling over police and civilian alike.

_He has another hostage._

--

Looking back, Danni had to admit that just barging in wasn't quite the best plan. She realized it quite soon and rather forcefully as the nervous, hulking man with the gun snatched her up by the hair as soon as she made it inside the building.

"What's this?" The man's rumbling voice boomed in her ear, "A little brat is the best the police can do against me?"

The mocking laughter that followed only served to make Danielle's blood boil, causing the girl to clench her fists and—reluctantly—forced her to suppress the desire the sock him hard. Repeatedly. However, the cold metal of a gun barrel pressing against her head scared even a half-ghost, especially one who had little faith in her ghostly abilities at the moment. She didn't know what had possessed her (eep, bad pun) to jump head first into the path of an armed maniac so soon after her close call the night before. She'd been so nervous about her powers that she'd actually _climbed_ over the fence to get out that morning—and that said something!

Of course, she kinda acted without thinking when it came to people in danger. She'd just been in the park enjoying a nice, relaxing, ghost-free afternoon when she'd heard someone talking about the robbery. Before her brain had fully processed the information she was up and running, ghost-side to the front as soon as she found a decent enough hiding spot, and pushing through the gathering crowd. Actually seeing the police and hearing the news of hostages only made ignoring her common sense easier.

Danni glared up at the man who held her, doing her best to ignore the deranged laugh he let out again, pressing the barrel harder against her head, "Come on man" He was speaking to the quaking clerk behind the counter, "Hand over all the cash ya' got or the walls are gonna need some redecorating." There was a soft click as the safety on the weapon was removed, "I'm thinking a nice pretty red."

"I—I can't. Not without a transaction—"

"Screw the transaction!" The robber snarled, his grip on the girl loosening as he turned a portion of his attention elsewhere. Danielle felt the gun shift slightly, as if the man was wavering between two targets. Fury welled up within her at that thought—there was no way she'd let him shoot anyone else!

It happened on instinct, she twisted in the man's grasp, hands clamping down on the barrel of the gun as she reached inside, groping for the energy that _had_ to be there—

—and both Danni and the gun fell _through_ the man's hands and onto the floor.

"What the hell?!" One minute the robber was quite comfortable, gun in one hand and a hostage in the other, when suddenly _both _were empty and said hostage had the gun trained on him. "Brat!"

"Don't move!" She yelled at him, quivering slightly as she tried to process what had happened. Intangibility had worked almost perfectly; she didn't feel the tell-tale dizziness or drain that usually preceded a melt-down. Had last night just been a fluke? It had shaken her up—she'd had no problems up until the fight with the proto-spook—and had wondered if her body had just suddenly hit its limit. Could it have just been a result of using her heavier powers? Her face scrunched up thoughtfully as she tried something, where was it? Ah, _there._

The man snarled at her inattention, dropping down quickly and sweeping the girl off her feet. With the same motion he flung her into the shop window, sending her flying through the glass which proceeded to shatter in no less than a million pieces, revealing a good portion of the shop to the police and the onlookers beyond the barricade. Seeing the opportunity, a couple of the officers tried to move closer—

—only to be stopped when the would-be robber grabbed up the discarded hand-gun and trained it on the other hostages, a woman and her two children when were huddled up against the counter, directly in the weapon's sights, "Now," he barked, loud enough that the police outside could hear him, "I want all the money in this joint—_now—_as well as the little brat. Then maybe I won't blow their brains all over…"

Whatever else he was going to say died out as the prone black and white form stirred, rising from the ground. The girl's back was to the police, _glowing _green eyes blazing from the shadows cast by the sudden onslaught of unfiltered light the shattered window had let in. There were a few cuts in the strange jumpsuit she wore as well as on her face, _green _blood oozing slowing from them, "Try it." Danielle dared, taking great pride in the expression of horror and terror that was dawning on the newly-turned victim's face, "Just try and shoot them."

"Stay back!" He cried, finger snapping down on the trigger. A few things happened at once: the mother fainted right then and there, the worker shivered from him hiding place beneath the counter where he'd hidden when the courageous girl had been thrown through the widow, and the police held their breath.

_Click._

Danni smirked. The robber sweated.

_Click. Click._

Terrified eyes snapped between the girl and the gun, finally settling on the closed fist that slowly rose from her side. White-gloved fingers uncurled.

_Ka-chink. Ka-chink. Ka-chink._

The bullet shells fell harmlessly to the ground, clattering against the tile floor.

Danielle grinned, and she could even imagine a golden feather floating silently to the ground. _'I do believe I just caught the canary…'_

"_Boo."_

The one word was all it took for the man to throw down his gun, babbling in hysteria, and run out of the shop and into the astounded, but waiting audience of police. He was tackled before he made it half-way to the barrier, crying and yelling about the ghost and how it was going to get him.

In the confusion, no one noticed the white-haired girl sneak beneath one of the café's tables, nor the black-haired one who appeared in the alley beside the shop and soon began to make her way down the street. By the time things returned to something resembling order, there was no sign of the little child who had somehow driven a grown man to hysterics, and saved the lives of a handful of people.

-

Almost. Almost…Got it!

Danielle smiled smugly as the roll of paper vanished before her eyes, the energy traveling from her hand and changing the news-paper's state to match it. The hybrid-clone pulled back with the paper in tow, scrambling up the driveway and back to the house (much to the confusion of the poor professor who'd just bent down to pick up the daily paper, only to find it nowhere to be seen. He could have sworn it was just there…) as fast as she could without actually leaving the ground. She dove through the front door with little more than a thought, an instinctive activating of her intangibility as soon as she came in contact with the wood was little more than child's play, especially since she was so preoccupied with the piece of paper in her hands.

The girl flickered back into view within the confines of the house, unrolling the newspaper and quickly scanning it. She'd been nervous about what people saw ever since getting home from the…conflict yesterday and it'd been stewing for nearly twenty-four hours. She had waited patiently to see what people had gleaned, and here were the answers in her hand.

Relief flooded through her as she caught sight of the article, the headline of _'MYSTEROUS GIRL SAVES HOSTAGES' _easily caught her eyes. A quick skim of the information told her that the onlookers hadn't noticed anything _too _bazaar. No one had caught sight of her impromptu change (before or after) nor had they gotten a very good picture. The one beneath the headline was obviously of amateur origin, blurred and shaky, but she could notice the black and white blob near the center of the image. It was from the back, so there wasn't any danger of anyone noticing the stylized symbol that marked her as Danny Phantom's clone.

A more in-depth read led to some interesting details. Apparently the guy was written off as crazy by the doctors, and as of the interview had yet to stop spouting about ghosts. There was obviously some conjecture about her origins, but nothing pointed to anyone taking the guy seriously. Danni couldn't help the pride that welled up inside, she'd _saved _those people. Her! Danielle!

Of course, they all didn't know she did, but hey, anonymity was what she wanted, right?

She read over the last few lines, where the reporters had been interviewing some of the civilian witnesses who had stuck around after the confrontation, pausing a little on a certain section.

"_When asked about the identity of child-like rescuer, local boy only shrugged 'She came in like a ghost, and then left like one. I think Yuurei might be a good name for her.'"_

"Yuurei, huh?" Danni tested it out, eyes flicking over the rest of the article before folding the paper back up, satisfied, "It's not bad. Better than Inviso-Bill at any rate."

A/N: I had fun with this, especially the robbery scene. Danni has Danny's 'saving people thing' so I can see her acting without thinking when someone's life is on the line. The robber was the only one to notice the glowing-ness and the green blood (and of course no one is gonna believe him) so her secret is still safe—and she got a nickname! I couldn't think of much else…it's not too bad right? I found it translated to mean ghost,specter,apparition and phantom.

I hope I'm doing these action scenes right, I don't have much experience with them. And I hope this whole thing was believable. If there is anything that confuses anyone, or the logic doesn't seem right, just let me know and I'll do my best to justify/explain.

Thanks to hittocerebattosai, xxBakaAkki, benign intent, and katiesparks for their reviews last chapter! Also a thank you to those who read, but decided not to review; although I must admit I prefer the reviews. I love getting review alerts…Anyway,

drop a review if you liked it. No idea when I'll get the next chapter out. I've been told to wait longer in between n-n;


	7. Chapter 7 Delivery

Chapter 7

On weekends, and sometimes even during school, many teenagers attempt what are called 'all-nighters'. The same echoed true for Conan, who despite his immature appearance _was_ an 18 year old in mind if not in body, although his reason for pulling said all-nighter was entirely different from most kids his true age. It wasn't to spend time cuddled on the couch with a loved one, nor was it just the usual teen-aged rebellion against bed-time and many hours of video games. It was a puzzle, a puzzle that just wouldn't let him get any damn sleep!

The bespectacled boy glared at the innocent looking piece of paper that was lying unfolded on his desk, more specifically at the signature that laughed up at him. The thief…that infuriatingly slippery phantom thief had just thrown out another heist note. It wasn't the note that Conan was particularly peeved about, no, he'd figured that out after only an hour of research and cross-referencing. It was…Colonel Mustard, in the Kitchen, with the Candlestick—wait, that was the game of Clue a drunken Mouri had conned him into playing.

Conan sighed, pushing the memory of the game to the back of his mind (he'd won of course) and pressed his palms together, leaning forward and looking at everything on the desk _except_ the grinning caricature. The moronic thief was working overtime—a second heist in the Baika area within two weeks was pushing it, even for Kid. How did he have so much free time? The detective had already guessed the thief's age lay somewhere in the mid-teens to early twenties, and was leaning towards full-time student since the heist schedules were too sporadic to indicate any other job beside his night-time ventures. He also seemed to be able to move around at the drop of a hat, rather invisibly, and had inside contact with the police—how else would he know when there was an impostor using his name? A few of those cases had been kept hushed up to avoid drawing the public to the heist; everyone on the police force and their consultants (Conan included himself, even though they thought Mouri was behind it all) knew that when someone tried to frame Kid, someone usually ended up dying and not by the thief's design.

At any rate, the heist was still a few days away, and the riddle had been particularly easy—the hour's worth of work had been in confirming his conclusion beyond a shadow of a doubt, and looking up another star in the thief's work. The missive had been a blatant invitation, targeted at a certain vigilante that had been popping up in the papers ever since her public appearance at a local café. There hadn't been any more major public scenes since then, but slowly the police inspectors were finding unconscious, tied up people down in the holding cells, each one confessing that they'd been involved in this robbery or that one—she seemed to focus on robberies mostly, but there were a few thugs who confessed to attempted rape or assault. Police were baffled by how readily the people came clean—there wasn't any evidence against them so early in the investigation, if one had even begun. It turned out that quite a few of them were caught in the act so the report hadn't even been filed yet.

Conan leaned back in his seat, peering through the darkness at the illuminated numbers blinking silently from his alarm-clock: 3:24. He shook his head at the ridiculously late hour, but knew better than to try and sleep. His brain was nearly buzzing with activity, and it would only drive him crazy if he didn't try and figure this problem out.

_Why_?

That was what was bothering him. Why would the kaitou show such a blatant interest in this 'Yuurei'? It could have been just a challenge, much like how Kid'd orchestrated one heist just so he could play against 'Tantei-kun', but it didn't sit right with Conan. Kid cared little for most of the detectives or police that didn't directly chase him, so some vigilante wandering the Baika prefecture (not even Kid's most popular theft site) wouldn't warrant such an obvious interest. The only possible way that he could come up with was that she had chased him somehow, or caught him by surprise—after one of the recent heists perhaps? Reports of Yuurei had been supposedly coming in for roughly two or three weeks before the café hostage situation, kept under wraps by the police since they'd been skeptics of a 'preteen brat playing at police', quote courtesy of Nakamori himself. It could have been possible that the budding crime-fighter had decided to go up against Kid, the ultimate catch for any crime-fighter, during the last one or two local heists.

Or he could just be fabricating this supposed meeting and reading too far into things. Kid had probably read about the girl in the paper and had decided to test her, or something similar. Hell, he could even be imagining the girl's involvement completely. The Kid was devious enough to make his notes look like one thing when they were really something else, but Conan couldn't think of anything else that would fit the _'ghost of justice.'_

This was getting him nowhere, his mind was running in circles and he needed something to distract him. Seldom uncovered blue eyes (his glasses lay on the desk-top) scanned the room for something, anything to get his mind off this mysterious vigilante and an utterly annoying thief. He paused at a small booklet, half covered by one of the many notebooks that contained his case-files, and reached across the wooden top and slid it out gently.

The player's guide for DOOMED stared up at him.

"Why not…" he muttered, "If anything the mindless violence will put me to sleep."

As he'd expected, the game was excruciatingly simple. He'd already figured out quite a few of the cheats and power-ups from the earlier levels, the simple riddles given by the NPCs were child's play for someone who was used to Kaitou Kid's work. Conan sent his avatar (named Shintantei on a whim. Tantei had been taken and so he'd added the first part of his name. So he wasn't very original—what of it?) to decimate the first few levels, the added power-ups allowing him to literally plow through the enemy characters, as well as a few unfriendly players, without much danger at all.

He was momentarily surprised by how many players were actually online at this time of the morning, but then remembered that DOOMED's largest fan base was in America, and that it was sometime in the afternoon over there. Plus, since when were normal teenagers restricted by time? He saw (and defeated) quite a few players with romanji-based names, and although most were probably non-Japanese anime-fans it was quite possible that there were some from his own country still awake at this hour.

Conan had just finished dissolving some poor monster with his energy gun when the terrain on the screen began to shake, sending his avatar swaying a little to keep upright. Out of the ground before him rose a metallic box, and upon further examination he labeled it a Gate, white-ish yellow light shining through the opening and dancing on the wooden sign that had appeared along with it. The words "Level 6" had been carved into the post, a skull sitting on top easily broadcasting the message of "Danger". Conan studied the gate on the screen, hmming softly, "Random event…to skip three levels and likely die, or keep up with the mindless vaporizing?"

A few keystrokes and some manipulation of the mouse had Shintantei waltzing through the glowing entrance, the screen going blank as the level 6 environment built itself around his avatar. Upon completion Conan absently noted that the surroundings had more of a tropical theme than the wasteland of level 3, and as such, there were many tall trees and foliage to hide in. It also seemed a lot emptier than the lower levels, either the players had finally realized the tactical advantage of stealth, or there just wasn't anyone else around on this particular level. Curious about the latter possibility, Conan hit a certain key combination, pulling up the listing that displayed the username of every person within a certain area. His own name was at the top of the painfully short list, and Conan read the English words aloud as he moved down the display, "_Chaos, FryerTuck, Zaurihin…"_

The boy couldn't help the satisfied, pleased smile that spread across his face at the final on the list, moving up into the viewing box as 'Chaos' flickered offline. He quickly pulled up the Friend's List, noting that GhostBoy was indeed online at the moment. "How lucky…" Conan murmured, navigating his avatar through the jungle, keeping half an eye on the mini-map and moving vaguely toward the point that was specified as the central 'town' of the level. He'd have a better chance of meeting up with a non-hostile player character in the town than out in the war zone, so he figured his choice was the most logical to make at the time.

Upon reaching the gates the screen blanked, the transition between terrain and town going on behind the loading page. The shrunken detective took the opportunity to lean back in his chair, yawning and rubbing his eyes as he stole a glimpse at the clock. Conan snorted at the blinking numbers—it just figured that sleep would finally start to catch up with him when he actually had a reason to stay awake.

Now if he was still 17 year old Kudou Shinichi he would say "to hell with sleep" and make himself some _really_ strong coffee to keep himself awake. Of course, he was currently the little brat Edogawa Conan so coffee was quite out of the picture—even Mouri would notice something wrong if a primary student was suddenly drinking coffee. He wasn't quite sure how the caffeine would affect his 7-8 year old metabolism anyway, so Conan decided to just put a time limit on his investigation. If he didn't find anything within half an hour (rounding the time off at a blinking 5 am) he'd just put it off for another night, preferably one with a nap beforehand so he wouldn't have the same problem.

At last the city loaded, Shintantei appearing in the center of the screen in what looked to be the road of some jungle village. It was complete with wooden huts and thatched roofs, each building in a style reminiscent of something Conan had seen in one of the kids' cartoons that Ayumi and the gang had dragged him along to. Sign posts had been driven in front of the openings, easily recognizable symbols labeling the Equipment Shop, the Inn, ect.

Conan returned to the keyboard and mouse after taking in the surroundings, bypassing the Inn and heading towards what looked like a commons area. As he got within 'hearing' range the previously empty chat box at the bottom of the screen flared to life, and a conversation already in progress began scrolling down the screen.

"Aww…Please Ghost? Come on, the Zauri-chick is just asking for us to enact our vengeance!" The whine was supposedly tagged as FryerTuck, and as Shintantei got close enough to see the speech bubbles he was able to place the username with what seemed to be a bespectacled dark-skinned boy, leaning more toward African ancestry than Hispanic or Asian if Conan was going to hazard a guess, in a pale yellow battle suit, the style slightly different than the more popular type he'd seen through the game. He was speaking to an avatar modeled after a typical Caucasian teenager, black hair, blue eyes, and slight build all wrapped up in a nice, neat, black and white battle-suit. He was confirmed as GhostBoy when the chat answered back, "No Tuck. I am not pulling out that cheat just because your ego is bruised."

FryerTuck didn't seem to like that idea, but didn't try and wheedle further, apparently noticing the blue and red of Shin's own battle suit, "Heeey! Da—Ghost look, a newbie!"

The pale yellow avatar moved away from Ghost, coming up to Conan's avatar and leaning over to study the newbie. Apparently if the player had a certain type of controller they could customize the movements and actions of the avatars to include such social gestures or more advanced battle-tactics, Conan had read about it in the player's guide, but all he had was a keyboard so it was out of his reach at the moment.

"Hey kid, how could a level three-bie survive on level six?"

Conan grinned to himself, ignoring the yawn he had to clamp down on as soon as he did so; apparently he was still listed as a level three on the in-game profiles. Small fingers moved across the keyboard in an automatic response, pressing enter before he realized one tiny, itsy bitsy little detail.

He hadn't written it in English.

"What?" FryerTuck seemed to be the only one interested in him, although he did see a questioning "Huh?" from GhostBoy at the use of Japanese characters. While it was a rather stupid mistake—Conan blamed it on lack of sleep—the boy found it rather funny, and quickly changed the keyboard's output to English lettering, "Sorry, the keyboard was on the wrong setting."

"Oh, so, you Japanese or something?"

"Yeah." Conan quickly hit the emote for 'Agree' which had his avatar nodding at the other player, "As to your question…The riddles and cheats in this game are not very hard to figure out."

If it were possible, the next bit of dialogue would have been said with a slowly widening smirk on the behalf of the Fryer, especially as he realized that he might not need Ghost's cheat in order to enact his revenge, "Hey Danny, I think we found a new friend!"

Conan took note of the slip, grabbing a small notebook and quickly jotting down 'Ghostboy—Danny?' before turning back to the screen. The other character was crossing the square finally, realizing that Fryer actually had more than a passing interest in the 'newbie'. Conan also jotted down, beneath the note, a small conclusion about the two knowing each other outside of the game; it would make sense with the non-username slip. People who met online usually kept referring to each other by that pseudonym even after learning the given name.

Once Ghost had taken up a position beside FryerTuck the yellow-clad player decided to make the introductions, "I am the almighty player FryerTuck, and my unusually quiet companion is GhostBoy. Don't mind him, he just misses his girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend." Ghost responded automatically before the black and white avatar waved, "Nice to meet you."

"Shintantei" Conan typed back.

"Well Shin," The Fryer began, "Would you be willing to put your 1337 cheat finding skillz to use for us? Aid us in wreaking revenge on the one who has repeatedly wronged us?"

Conan thought it over for a few moments, but the decision came readily enough. This was a perfect chance to establish relations—if he proved himself useful then maybe he'd manage to learn more about the person behind the quiet 'GhostBoy'. Lurking in the back of his mind was the possibility that the person was completely different from the one mentioned in the email, but his instincts were telling him otherwise. His instincts had only failed him once, it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which he'd trust.

"I have half an hour. I'll do what I can."

--

It was morning. It wasn't too early—the sun was up and the streets were bathed in soft golden light—but it wasn't quite time for the local schools to have started. The streets were empty and quiet as Danielle walked down the sidewalk, hands stuffed into the pockets of her sweater and head bowed slightly, deep in thought.

She hadn't been paying much attention to it before, but she'd noticed today. The store of food that she'd found in the house was almost gone—she had maybe enough to ration for another day or so before it became a major problem. The hybrid wasn't quite sure what she was going to do about the looming predicament, she would either need to steal the food itself, steal the money for the food, or somehow find a job to make the money. Given a choice she would pick the final option in a heart beat, but there was a little snag in that plan. Danielle didn't exist as far as the world was concerned, and lack of proper identification would hinder rather than help when it came to finding a legit job.

Danni didn't really have much of a choice, as it was she was resigned to sacrificing her morals for her continued survival. Sure she didn't need food as much as a normal human (one of the few reasons the small amount of food had lasted so long) but she could not afford to go without it for too long. Danni had grown to like being able to use some of her abilities without making a gooey mess of herself.

The hybrid kicked absently at a chink in the sidewalk, moving over the slightly-raised slab of concrete with a small hop. The sounds of wheels soon brought her attention off the future, her eyes rising and meeting with the incoming figure of a boy on a bicycle. For a normal girl the bike would have been approaching too rapidly for her to react, but Danni had raced against much faster beings, so it only took a split second to register and she was off to the side, out of the way, and continuing down the sidewalk. She didn't know where she was going, just for a walk somewhere. Maybe out into the city.

No, school would be starting soon, and she didn't want to have to deal with truant officers. What to do…

The decision was put off momentarily when she heard a yelp from behind, followed by a crash and the sound of flesh and metal hitting concrete. Danni didn't need to turn around to have a good idea what had happened, but that didn't mean she wasn't concerned. The hybrid picked her way carefully back toward the remains of the bike and its rider, trying not to think of how comical the machine looked, front wheel twisted and up in the air, still spinning from the momentum it retained from before the accident.

The rider didn't look too beat up, he'd been thrown off the machine when it had hit the raised section of concrete; most likely he hadn't been paying attention, and the bump caused by that section of the sidewalk had startled him to the point of causing a wipeout. Some sort of messenger bag had split open during the fall and small, neat packages of paper were scattered all over the ground. Danni winced, gathering the papers as she moved and placing them in a pile next to the fallen teenager, "Hey, are you okay?"

The newspaper delivery boy muttered something that she was glad she couldn't hear , judging by the tone, and sat up stiffly, "I need to pay more attention." He moved again, wincing in pain as he put weight on what Danni diagnosed as a twisted ankle, "There's no way I can finish my route before school now. Dad's gonna kill me."

Danni bit her lip as the boy tried to fit the rest of the escaped papers back in the bag, having difficulty standing and moving on the ankle. After a minute she decided, offering, "I can finish it. I don't think you should ride with that ankle."

The boy looked torn between relief and a little bit of wariness. She could imagine the debate going on in his mind. On one hand, he would not be able to finish the route AND get to school with the way he kept wincing every time he put weight on that ankle. On the other hand, she was an unknown girl who offered to finish it for him so he could get to school.

"That would help me a lot." Despite the high crime-rate in Baika, the people tended to be rather trusting, so she wasn't surprised when at last the relief won out. Besides, it wasn't like there was much to fear from someone who looked like she could be in middle-school right? He shrugged off the bag and set it on the ground, pulling out a piece of paper that had the route written on it, "There's not much left, but I'd be moving pretty slowly without my bike." He didn't need to say why, with the way the metal was twisted.

"I can do it." Danni took the bag and slung it over her shoulder, finding it wasn't heavy at all despite the number and thickness of the papers she'd gathered from the ground. The boy looked strangely at the ease with which she carried it, but she just smiled and shrugged it off, "Just don't be late for school, m'kay?"

He nodded and thanked her again, giving her directions to his father's office where she'd return the extra papers and the bag. He righted the bicycle, wincing every now and then at the pain he was feeling from his twisted foot, and slowly made his way down the street, walking alongside the rather bumpy movements the vehicle was making, it probably had a dent somewhere in the wheel.

Danni glanced down at the paper, smiling as she memorized the red line that wound through the neighborhood. She knew most of this area like the back of her hand and it would take no more than ten minutes to finish it if she decided to fly. But she wasn't in a rush so she set off down the street, putting aside the idea of using flight; it wasn't like she had anything else to do today except angst over her supply dilemma.

As the girl worked her way along the route she started to see it as a game. Some people were already out at the foot of their driveways, at their mailboxes, or on the porch since she was running a bit behind what the usual delivery time was. Score 10 points if she managed to sneak the paper in right under their noses, minus 5 if she got caught, and an extra 5 if they were visibly startled by the newspaper's sudden appearance.

Of course, she wouldn't be a competent ghost if she got caught, so needless to say there were no point deductions so far.

The bag was feeling considerably lighter by the time she was nearing the end of the route, a set of five papers left and two houses to go. The first one was empty much to her disappointment; she wasn't able to receive anymore points if there wasn't anyone there to startle. Danni just walked up the path to the porch and slipped it onto the doorstep, whistling lightly before returning to the main street. She could see the next house from here; it was half-hidden behind a hedge that separated the two lots. Much to her delight there was an older woman sitting on the porch, doing the grandmotherly thing of knitting in a wooden rocking chair.

Danielle flickered invisible and snuck across the lawn, waiting until the lady got up and went inside before slipping the paper into the seat that had just been vacated. There wasn't any sign of the old lady coming back out at the moment—although the needles and thread also occupying the seat indicated that she was coming back out eventually—so Danni let the invisibility drop and started to make her was off the porch.

Footsteps from inside caught her attention, causing the girl to quickly slip inside the bushes next to the steps. It would have been very easy to just flick out of sight and continue on her way, but Danni was curious to know if she'd gotten the last five points to bring her total up to 100. The door creaked open and the woman came out again, holding what seemed to be a small envelope. She glanced at the paper, but what happened next was a complete surprise.

"Saito, be a dear, could you please come out?"

Silence.

"Fuji-san told me that you've been rather sneaky about the delivery this morning and that you just passed her house. I know you're here."

Danni giggled softly to herself; caught red-handed at the end. Oh well, her total was going to have to stay at the uneven 95. Wait, 90 now that she'd been noticed. From the lady's words, she figured that Saito was the usual delivery boy's name, the one she'd helped out earlier. The girl extracted herself from the bushes, "Saito's not here ma'am. He hurt himself this morning so I'm subbing for him."

"Oh, I hope he's alright." She didn't seem too perturbed to learn that she wasn't addressing the high-school student; either that or she just decided to take it all in stride. "I suppose it makes sense, Saito is much too loud on that bicycle of his to keep the entire neighborhood from noticing him."

They both shared a laugh at that, the woman from experience and Danni just because she found the situation amusing. After the chuckles quieted, the girl adjusted the shoulder strap for the bag (it had gotten dislodged when she'd taken cover in the bushes) and decided it was time to get going. When she mentioned this to the woman, the old lady paused and held out the letter, "You seem like a nice girl; could you perhaps deliver this to Saito?"

"Sure ma'am." Danni accepted the letter, placing it temporarily within the mostly empty messenger bag. "I'm a delivery girl today, so it's kinda my job."

The hybrid said good-bye a final time before heading down the street again, waiting until she was out of sight of the old woman's house before ducking under cover and shifting forms.

_That was fun._ She mused as she continued her journey, leisurely drifting among the clouds as she tried to pinpoint the position of the small shop Saito had told her to drop the rest of the stuff off at. She knew the general area, having gotten to know this part of the city pretty well over the past few weeks, but couldn't place exactly where the store was. It wasn't like she'd paid much attention to the buildings as more than just landmarks—she never had any money to waste in any type of shop.

At last she found it, wedged in between a book store and what looked to be another small business. The ghost-child flickered invisible and landed in the alley between the shop and the building beside it, initiating the change as soon as she touched the ground. It was the black haired Danielle who exited, glancing along the rather empty street quickly (it was still rather early) before strolling down the sidewalk, pushing open the door of the office and entering to the ring of a small bell somewhere in the back.

The building was lit dimly, the fault of a burnt-out light bulb in one of the overhead lights, and was rather empty. There was a desk at the far end of the room, padded benches set along one of the walls that served as a waiting area. A muted TV flickered in the corner, closed captioning running along the bottom as it dictated some news program or another. Danni dismissed it quickly, heading back to the desk and ringing the small bell on the wooden counter.

A muted tone sounded from the back-room, followed by noises as whoever was back there shuffled to the front. It was a larger man that emerged from the opened door, tall and wiry with a set of glasses perched in front of coal-black eyes, "Can I help you kid?"

Danni slipped the messenger bag off from around her shoulders, reaching in and pulling out the letter before placing the cloth container on the counter. "Saito told me to return these. I finished his route."

The man, Fujita Touya if the nametag was correct, checked the contents, tallying up the extra papers and muttering something about a "lazy son". It must have been satisfactory because he nodded, "Thanks for helping the kid out." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small envelope, "Here's a bit of payment for your time. You didn't have to help him."

She was surprised; Danni hadn't expected to be paid. She almost refused it, but remembering her lack of funds led her to accept it, even if it was rather guiltily. Once she'd placed the envelope in the pocket of her sweater the man pulled out one of the papers in the bag, "You can have one of these as well. There's plenty extra. What's your name, kid?"

"D-Danni." Startled by the question she didn't really have time to think of an alternative. She figured it wouldn't be too memorable, and there was nothing she could do about it now. As long as she didn't give the man reason to snoop, he probably wouldn't. The man repeated it, testing the syllables, "Thank you again, Dani." The '_da'_ was emphasized, and the 'a' short, she noted, so it didn't even sound like her name. It wasn't too bad.

She just nodded, returning the customary "You're welcome" before ducking out of the shop, placing a hand in her sweater and running it along the edge of the envelope. She didn't think there would be much in there, but every little bit helped. Her fingers brushed against the second one, the letter to Saito from the last lady and she thought back to the boy. He'd been dressed in a uniform, one that she'd recognized, surprisingly enough. The style and dark-blue coloring only matched one high school within the area—Ekota High School. She wondered why he worked in Baika if he lived in Ekota, before shrugging and starting down the street. It wouldn't be very hard to deliver it; the office would probably direct her to his locker so she could slip it in.

Across the street a large viewer displayed the time, and Danni noted that she would be there in plenty of time. Walking, the school was roughly—half an hour away, and it was around 9ish at the moment. She'd definitely get it delivered before the school let out for lunch, so she could just nip in, and then nip out again.

--

Kaito yawned and stared vaguely out the window, only half-listening to the teacher drone on and on about something or another—he'd forgotten the exact topic already. He saw Aoko shooting him annoyed looks for the blatant inattention, but he couldn't help it. He was somewhat preoccupied, going through his heist preparations in his head. This one needed more than the usual tricks, especially since he was going against another performer. At least that was what he'd pegged this Yuurei to be, what with her constant disappearing acts, her flair for the dramatic when she returned his hat, and the fact that most of her 'victims' actually believed she was some kind of spirit. It took a little bit more than just hair-dye and make-up to convince hardened, down-to-earth men that a little girl was closer to dead than alive.

An anticipatory grin spread across his face as he considered the heist night, 24 hours hence. It'd be fun to spar against another performer for once—not that he wasn't fond of his usual critics, but sometimes another perspective was needed. He just needed to find a way to knock the Mini-Holmes out of the game early if he decided to ignore the subtle hint Kaito'd left in the note asking for a private confrontation.

Movement near the school gates caught the teenager's eye; the compound was usually a ghost-town during classes. There was always the chance that someone was skipping, but they'd have to be mental to hang around that close to the gates. Unfortunately his classroom was too far from the front of the school, and angled oddly so he couldn't get a very clear image. All he knew was that the person was small, a splash of red covering dark-hair.

The description brought to mind a certain someone, but he quickly shook the thought away. What'd be the odds of her showing up here? At his school?

His attention wandered again, growing bored with the outside after another listless half an hour. His eyes flickered toward the clock, hanging unobtrusively near the wooden door. He rolled his eyes at the numbers, noting with mild interest that he wasn't the only one focusing more on the time than on the teacher. It was always like this during this particular part of the day, the teacher was utterly boring, and the time was near enough to lunch that people were getting impatient. Kaito's block was the earliest lunch, and it happened in another half an hour or so.

A movement out in the hall drew his attention from the clock, peering out the glass window set into the wooden door with bored curiosity to see who was wandering the halls at this time of the day. His eyes were almost too slow, and the violet colored orbs widened at the glimpse of blue, red and black that flashed briefly in the narrow opening. Once he could chalk up to wistful thinking, but not twice. He suddenly sat up ramrod straight, hand shooting up into the air with a sudden motion that caught the teacher by surprise.

"Yes Kuroba-kun?"

"Can I use the restroom?"

The teacher looked a little put off, annoyed that the first time Kaito ever seemed to pay any attention to her was just to ask to leave. "Lunch is in half an hour. You can wait."

Kaito pouted and slouched back down to his desk, sneaking glances out the door's window every now and then. There wasn't much down that hallway, merely a bunch of lockers and the restrooms, so what would _that_ girl be doing there? Hell, why was she at his school?

And why did he want to know so much?

A/N: Egads…I hope you all like big chapters…I really didn't mean it to last so long…It just…wouldn't stop…There was supposed to be at least two more scenes after this, but I decided to cut it off here cause…well…I wanted to get something out this weekend, but I have a ton of homework…so they'll just go in the next chapter.

Is the timeline confusing at all? Well, not so much the timeline, but the time between scenes and stuff, did I do an okay job in clarifying it? I'm a little worried it might be confusing…

O-o I have my first reoccurring OC in here. Saito will appear a couple times in the future, but it won't be anything too major, just popping in every now and then to do…stuff…stuff that needs to be done z-z

Also, how was my version of DOOMED? I was a bit worried about actually writing out a game…I wasn't quite sure how to do it since we don't see too much of the system in the episode, so I had to wing it a bit. I tweaked it to a slightly more rpg style, basing it off a game I've played online. And so Conan meets Danny! There'll be a bit more forays into the game now that Conan has actually made contact, which'll result in him witnessing an…altercation with Technus…oh that's gonna be _fun._

Anyways, I've rambled enough. Don't forget to review! Oh yeah, and check my deviantart page, katreal(dot)deviantart(dot)com and look at the featured deviation. I actually drew out part of the last chapter! Danni is so much fun to draw…I have a bunch more sketches of future scenes for this story.

Erk, going now before I get started on a tangent again. See ya'll next time!

TBC


	8. Chapter 8 Preparations

Chapter 8 - Preparations

At last lunch came around, to the relief of everyone in the class. Kaito had been distracting after he'd been turned down, folding up papers and sending the airplanes flying at random people. Everyone knew he was the one to do it, but none ever caught him in the act. The second a pair of eyes drifted over to him the sheaf of papers disappeared discretely beneath folded arms, and his uninterested stare once more directed out of the classroom. Once they left he'd have an already folded paper airplane in his hand, sending it gliding toward its next target.

The unused paper was slipped into his bag amid the screech and scraping of the chairs, and Kaito stood up himself, taking a moment to stretch and loosen the kinks that had formed in his back for being sitting for so long. He hated school for that reason. Kaito was an active person—sitting still ended up being very uncomfortable after a long period of time.

Once the class had filed out of the room Kaito followed, but turned the opposite direction of the main flow of students. He didn't really know why he was so fascinated by the runaway he'd helped out well over a month ago—he knew it was the same girl, he'd managed to get a pretty decent view as she came back down the hallway—but regardless he was curious. He guessed it was because she was a puzzle in an otherwise rather boring civilian life. The excitement during heists was all fine and dandy, but there was a distinct difference in mentality that showed when the monocle was on.

The end of the hallway was just a set of lockers set against the walls, where a few of the students from his class where digging through them for their lunches. The only thing amiss happened to be a student he knew better than most. Fujita Saito was one of Aoko's few other guy friends, and because of it Kaito knew him fairly well. When they were younger they used to be teased often about the similarity in their names, and the passing resemblance they held. Saito had long since prompted to grow his black hair out in an attempt to dissuade the teasing, the heavier weight making the messy style both he and Kaito had sported near impossible to show off.

Anyway, Fujita wasn't one to doddle, and usually was one of the first to grab his stuff and leave. It wasn't often he just hung around, and Kaito could soon seen why as he moved closer. His locker was half open, and an unsealed envelope lay discarded on top of an untouched bento-box. Two more sheets of paper where held in his hands, the reason for his remaining near the locker.

"Yo, Fujita, what's up?" Kaito stalked up to the oblivious boy, poking him abruptly in the shoulder and chuckling at the resulting twitch, "What'cha got there? A love note?"

"No." Saito muttered irritably, "Just a letter from my grandmother. Apparently she wants me to do something for her the next time I'm on my route."

"Speaking of that…you were here pretty early this morning." The magician remembered thinking it was odd, even on the best of days Saito barely ever made it until a few seconds before school began. He'd immediately taken notice during his morning assessment of his fellow classmates, especially since the boy had been walking with a faint crick in his steps, as if movement had hurt.

"I took a spill about halfway through, and someone else offered to finish the job. She was apparently the one to deliver the letter." He shook the second sheet of paper, where a hastily scrawled message shown on a crumpled sheet of paper, in what appeared to be messy English. Both students could read it, the language simple enough to work with their mandatory English classes.

"Hm…black hair, blue eyes, red hat, blue sweater, and a slight foreign accent?" Kaito suddenly wondered aloud, ignoring the look of surprise that the other student shot him. "How'd you know?"

"Saw her going down the hall. I've met her before too, she's a good kid."

The magician gave Fujita a rogue grin, "Now come on, we're gonna be written up if we hang around too long." He snatched the bento out of the locker, leaving a faintly amused, but annoyed Saito to follow him down the hallway. Distraction, thy name is Kaito.

--

Danni leafed through the newspaper that she'd been given earlier that morning, excited to finally be able to read it. Since the last purloined paper, the old man had been getting more careful, coming down and picking it up earlier than she was able to snatch it. It didn't bother her too much, but current news was an interesting read every now and then.

Like right now for example, a small article on the front page caught her interest quite nicely. The thief she'd run into some time ago had announced another heist, the article making brief mention of the target and location. Being reminded of the thief tugged at another memory, swiveling the office chair around to face the computer. The newspaper was folded carefully, keeping the piece of interest face up, and placed on the wooden surface; a click, and a flick of her wrist brought the computer to life.

She remembered vaguely the one time, when the little boy—Co-something—had come over to check something on the computer. She'd snuck a peek at what he was looking at before pulling out of the room, and the article's subject had brought the memory full to the front. There'd been a blurry picture on the screen, black and white, but the subject had been unmistakable.

The ghost hybrid searched the drive labeled "Case Files", remembering vaguely watching the small boy do this exact same thing. The file on Kid was easy to find, they were ordered in a painstakingly neat fashion, divided up between 'Caught' and 'Free', and then further by the type of crime. Under Free/Theft she easily found the folder named 'Kaitou 1412—KID', and pulled up all of the collected information on the curious thief.

There was a surprising amount, compiled over tons of cases by someone named "Kudou Yuusaku". Danni shook her head, it couldn't be the same person—the man she'd met was NOT anything over twenty years old.

But…she couldn't help but admit that the picture met up neatly with the man she'd seen, the costume, the method of escape, the heist notes (as mentioned in the article) also coincided. Either this was one very good copy-cat, or she was seeing another generation of Kaitou Kid.

"Interesting…" The clone muttered, blue eyes flicking back to the paper, memorizing the museum name and the speculated time of the heist. It was pegged to take place sometime tomorrow night, and Danni made a note to drop in sometime if she happened to be anywhere nearby.

Yuurei had a reputation for stopping thieves, after-all.

--

Unbeknownst to its sole occupant, a set of eyes watched the house curiously, lounging on a couch in the house next door, and studying the structure with an analytical eye. Haibara Ai knew that something was up. The professor had been acting weird lately, and he was obviously trying to keep it from her. Kudou had been much the same whenever he came over, always referring to it as a "case". A case that he refused to speak about.

If there was one thing the scientist hated, it was to be left out of the loop. There was something going on in that house. There was something that had Agasa continually glancing out the windows when the lights went off, searching the darkened panes for signs. What signs she did not know, she'd only managed to overhear one thing pertaining to it. One night, a few days ago, the elderly inventor had been peering out the window as she was passing by, heading for the kitchen for a light snack; it had been soft, and she almost didn't hear it, but the professor had spoken to himself, "It's not there tonight…"

What wasn't there? What was he looking for?

She itched to find out, her sense of self-preservation developing it into a driving need. After all, if something strange was happening at the Kudou home, she had a right to know about it! It could be _them_… If it was…

A shiver ran down her spine, well earned paranoia kicking in. The girl swung her legs off the couch, rising to her feet and tearing herself away from the visage of the house. Now that she thought about it, the professor had been acting odd for a while now, ever since he set up that telescope in the guest bedroom…

Ai paused, eyes narrowing in thought. The guest bedroom was on the upper-floor, situated so that its small windows were facing directly at Kudou's home. Out of all the rooms on the top floor, it was sure to have the best view of the structure…indeed, at the time she'd wondered over the addition to the room, the house would block out most of the view of the night sky.

As her mind processed the growing suspicion the blond girl made her way up the stares, careful to avoid the inventor as he tinkered away in one of the workshops downstairs. The guestroom door opened easily under her small hand, and she toed the door closed behind her before staring silently at the instrument that shone lightly in the afternoon sunlight that streamed through the window.

The girl crept forward and examined the telescope, a small nagging thought in the back of her mind reminding her how stupid she would feel if this was all for nothing. Agasa could have just set it up there to get it out of the way.

_There are tons of storage rooms._ Was the counter to that argument, the whole point becoming unimportant as her fingers caught on a small, added instrument to the viewing lens. _Bingo._

With careful, experienced hands the scientist worked it free, holding the small piece of recording equipment at eye level, "Time to see what you've been watching, professor."

--

In the dead of night a silent form alighted on the roof of the Baika Museum of Art, the black shrouded figure blending in with the shadowed city-space, far above the building and street lights. A black glider folded up, being placed aside as a small pack was dropped onto the concrete roof. The figure crouched next to it, rooting through the contents, varying pieces of equipment of all shapes and sizes shifting with each movement. A break in the heavy cloud layer illuminated the roof slightly, captured within violet eyes, alight with anticipation.

Kaito felt odd going out and doing thief-ly things without his costume, but if he wanted his preparations to be here come the morrow he needed to be discrete. He knew exactly how to hide things to avoid Nakamori's notice, and he would be abusing that knowledge even more so than usual tonight, but any flash of white near the building would draw more critical eyes than Nakamori, and he didn't want to jeopardize his…performance. It would be a pain to sneak back up here to re-plant the devices—not that he _couldn't_ do it, of course.

Kaito surveyed the set-up, fingering the small remote in his pocket with barely contained anticipation. Sure, it wasn't quite on the right side of the law, but this little hobby had grown from idolization of a father and an attempt to follow his footsteps, and had become something that the boy genuinely enjoyed doing. When he found the Pandora, he couldn't quite say he would be able to just give up the guise of Kaitou Kid. It was too much of him now. The guise of Kaitou Kid belonged as much to Kuroba Kaito as it did to Kuroba Toichi now; he'd made it that way.

Satisfied with the placement and concealment of the equipment, the black-shrouded teenager bent over, picking up the collapsible glider from where he'd dropped it upon landing. The building was high enough to catch a satisfactory drift, so Kid's civilian persona took a single step, feet meeting air. He was soon plummeting to the ground; wind blowing the strands of uncovered hair wildly, and a maniac grin illuminated faintly by the streetlights below. A little positioning, along with some expert maneuvering of the machinery, and the black cloth wings unfolded behind him, barely visible in the depths of midnight, catching the air and jerking him into a nice glide. He was still a good distance above the main light source, the only difficulties being the occasional neon sign or lit windows. But they were easily avoided, and Kaito flew on, unnoticed in the night sky.

-

On the other side of the world, the dead of night was early afternoon. In the sleepy town of Amity Park, the most haunted town in the USA, the sun was shining, the air warm with the sun's rays—it was the perfect day to enjoy outside, in tune with nature.

Of course, most teenagers could care less about how pretty it was, since the modern breed tended to remain within doors whenever possible. Such was the case with Amity Park's resident super-hero and his two friends, ignoring the wonderful weather in favor of hanging out underground in the, rather messy, basement lab beneath Fenton Works.

Daniel Fenton—known to most as Danny—had been asked, well, ordered to clean up the residue that his parental units' latest project had left on the walls when it exploded. Normally the teen would have hated to be demoted to drudge duty when he had far more important things to worry about—like a random ghost attack or something of a similar nature—but the ecto-plasmic spooks had been rather scarce as of late, so the ghost-boy was quite relived to have something _relatively_ benign to worry about was rather welcome.

The fact that he'd been able to guilt-trip/bribe his two best friends into helping him only resulted in a small portion of the appeal. Honestly.

"So…" Tucker Foley, the techno-geek of the team and master of cheesy pick-up lines began, wanting to break the silence beyond the constant scratching of the scrub-brush, "Does anyone have any good news to report?"

"My parents finally snapped when they found my grandmother trying on some of my clothes." Danny's other best friend and the only female in the group retorted, amethyst eyes narrowing as she casually flicked a bit of green-tinged soap bubbles toward the unsuspecting Tucker.

Silence reigned again for a good couple moments, and Danny had to fight back a laugh at the expression that had manifested on the dark boy's face. It was somewhere between weirded out and disturbed, probably in response to the mental image Sam had supplied him with. Danny couldn't blame him; he was having a similar reaction himself.

"…really?"

"No." Samantha Manson chuckled, reaching out to grab an unused rag and scrub at a particularly stubborn stain, "Trust me, if it happened I would be out celebrating."

"Hah. Very funny," Tucker mock-glared across the room at the girl, before he turned pointedly to Danny, "So what about you? Have you heard from your cousin?"

"Not this week." Danny let his mind wander as he wrung the water out of his sponge, thinking back to the weekly emails he'd been getting ever since his female clone had decided to cut loose and run. He'd been worried in the beginning, but since the messages kept coming he figured she'd managed to keep herself safe and well out of his arch-enemy's reach. He didn't quite know what Vlad had in store for her, but Danny knew from experience that the elder half-ghost's plans rarely ever benefited anyone but himself. "But from what she's told me she'd doing fine."

"Oh. Do you have any idea where she went?"

"No."

"Any clues?"

"No."

"Anyth—"

Danny was saved from needing to repeat himself for the third time by a well-aimed wooden scrubbing brush, lobbed by a slightly ticked off Sam. "Shut up Tuck. He doesn't know."

Danny couldn't help the faint grin that sprang to life as Sam proceeded to distract the techno-geek from the subject of Danielle. Obviously the Goth remembered why he didn't like discussing sensitive subjects in the lab, and his clone was definitely a sensitive subject. He wasn't worried so much about his parents outfitting the lab with recording equipment to monitor some experiment or another, but the lab had proven on more than one occasion to be under malevolent surveillance from another source.

The teen hybrid's expression darkened momentarily, remembering the latest incident. The last time they carelessly discussed something in the lab it had almost resulted in Sam getting burned to a stake, a rather painful meeting with a certain anti-ghost plant called a Blood Blossom, and Vlad in possession of an enchanted map that could lead its holders to anywhere, or anything they desired. They'd managed to avoid the worst-case in that scenario, but ever since he'd made it a point to avoid talking about certain subjects in the underground complex.

Tucker, being who he is, occasionally forgot the little rule, especially in cases of severe boredom when he was not allowed to fiddle with his technology for safety reasons. Electronic devices, plus ectoplasm-contaminated soapy water was probably not a very good mix.

_But still_, he thought as he watched as Sam and Tucker spontaneously revived their age-old war on the advantages of a vegetarian diet versus the pure carnivore approach (Sam had apparently used the subject as a means to distract the boy away from sensitive topics and it had escalated from there) _I wouldn't trade 'em for anything._

Unnoticed by the trio, a small blinking red light sat in the corner of the room, the electronic bug transmitting the images and audio from the lab to a large mansion on the other end of town. Danny would be quite annoyed if he found out that his fears were founded, and that one Vladmir Masters was currently watching as the argument dissolved into a laughing water fight. The billionaire wasn't necessarily paying attention to the childish game, but was considering the import of the conversation before the poorly disguised diversionary tactic.

"So, Daniel has been in contact with my wayward daughter." The older halfa spoke aloud, petting the fat white cat on his lap absently. He hadn't really been paying attention to Danielle recently, only setting his pets after her as an after-thought, to run her until she couldn't take it anymore and her unstable genetic code finally unraveled. After that, he could salvage her remains for his own research, although he'd pretty much given up on cloning his rebellious badger. The closest, humanoid clone had been Danielle, and she'd been far too strong willed, not to mention female as well as her instability problem. However, she'd also lasted the longest, which meant that if he could isolate the cause, then perhaps he could fix the little problems and reopen the project.

The idea had merit. But if it were to happen he'd need to start keeping tabs on her again. Obviously Daniel didn't know where she was, he was a horrible liar, but he'd been truthful when he said that she was doing well. That was good for Vlad, because it would give him time to track her down again.

He made a mental note to send out more of his ghost animals to search for her, broadening the target zone to include any and all natural portals leading from the ghost zone. He didn't think she would have the energy to fly all the way across the oceans, so travel through the ghost zone would be more likely.

"Come Maddie," He spoke to the cat, putting aside his plans for his rebellious experiment for the moment, "There is a Packers game on in a few minutes."

The cat yawned and got to its feet sluggishly, hopping off of the man to let him move. She was then rewarded by a free ride out of the basement—Vlad's own version of a lab, although most of the designs were ripped from the Fentons. The couch was quite comfortable as the two settled down in front of the overly expensive television, the Packers fanatic putting off all of his plans. For now.

--

­A/N: 'lo. Sorry it's late. It's shorter too, but it's a lead up chapter. The heist is in the next.

Oh look, Danny and the gang showed up. I tried to put in a bit of back-story for those of you who haven't actually seen Danny Phantom, so I hope ya'll aren't too lost.

Uh…anyway…I'm tired, so I'll leave this note short. Don't forget to review! They are really nice to read n.n

TBC


	9. Chapter 9 Encounter

Chapter 9 - Encounter

5 minutes.

Nakamori growled and glanced at the clock, watching the minute hand slowly tick down to the expected heist time. He took one long breath before grinding the glowing end of his cigarette into the ashtray.

4 minutes.

Mouri grumbled, shooting annoyed looks at the…excitable inspector. He didn't want to be here—he was the Sleeping Kogoro! He had no time to waste on some stupid jewel thief. Especially when said thief caused him to miss the series finale of Okino Youko's latest TV show. Damn the brat for bugging him to come. Where'd he get to anyway?

3 minutes.

While the inventor was rooted to the television screen, watching something or another, a small figure snuck out of the house. She made her way through the yard and over the fence, toward the looming figure of the neighboring house, miniscule recording equipment held tightly in one fist. There was something going on in that house, and Haibara was going to find out what it was.

2 minutes.

On top of the building, a small white and black figure touched down. She seemed to glow in the night, the faint aura emanating from her body easily visible against the darkened backdrop. A quick look around and she nodded, her form fading from view. The only remaining clue to the Phantom's presence was a slight, unnatural chill.

1 minute.

Small footsteps echoed up the metal stairs, proceeding and following the little boy who took each couple steps with occasional jumps and hops. There wasn't anything he could do at the actual jewel exhibition—the officers never let him in the room, and so his best bet would be to head to the thief's signature escape spot. He knew the kaitou would come. A small hand landed on the metal handle, pulling it down and pushing the door open in the same movement. As soon as it swung open, the trap sprang.

_Show Time._

Down in the exhibit hall, the lights suddenly blacked out, sending the police into a frenzy to hook up the emergency lights. Many of the newcomers hesitated, unnerved by the sudden, soft, yet carrying laughter that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. The veterans to the task force just shrugged it off and scrambled to obey Nakamori's barked orders—they had little to no chance of catching the thief in the dark, even with his ridiculous white outfit. They managed to get the generators hooked up and running despite having all the cords mysteriously coming unplugged, and the police spotlights flooded the room with light. They were a little late, catching the recognizable thief as he stood triumphantly on top of the glass case that had once housed the emerald he was admiring in the sudden light.

"Quite a beautiful piece," Kid admitted to himself, only sparing a crooked grin in the police's direction before placing it gently in his suit pocket, drawing out a small round pellet in exchange as Nakamori recovered his wits and ordered a full out dog-pile on the bandit. Kid merely chuckled and squeezed the pellet quickly, tossing it to the ground directly beneath him. The bandit and the incoming wave of navy blue were suddenly enveloped in a thick, murky cloud of—of all the colors—bubble gum pink smoke.

"KID!" Nakamori roared, flailing blindly in the general direction he believed the thief to be in, "GET BACK HERE!"

"No can do Inspector." The Kid purred softly in his ear, his voice appearing to come from directly behind him, "I have another appointment I must keep."

Nakamori growled something unprintable, whirling around and latching onto the silk-sleeve that he couldn't quite see in the thick smoke, despite it being directly before him, "Hah! I've got you now!" The old officer crowed, keeping a firm grip on the thief as he groped for the handcuffs that usually hung securely at his belt. His hand met nothing but air, before it was snatched by a gloved one and something metal settled on his wrist.

"Looking for these, Inspector?" Kid chuckled, and before Nakamori knew it his first hand was also clutching at air as it joined its partner in the metal bracelets, "I think they look far better on you. The grey doesn't go well with the white, don'cha think?"

Caught in his own handcuffs, all Nakamori was able to do was throw himself at the cheeky bandit, yelling at the top of his lungs, "What the _hell_ are you IDIOTS doing? Get the—"

At first he thought he was able to feel the kaitou's body beneath him, but even that illusion seemed to evaporate into smoke, just as the rest of the disoriented officers came charging at the source of the inspector's shout.

Outside the cloud, Kid chuckled, letting himself quietly out of the exhibit room and setting off leisurely for the true playing field. As fun as it was to get the police officers to play pile-on-the-inspector, it was as he'd told Nakamori—he had a prior engagement to get to.

He could only hope that she'd been intrigued enough to investigate the heist—the stupid police never released the heist note to the general public, and there'd only been a small article in the paper. So, there wasn't any guarantee the intended audience had even seen the invitation—there were times when secret identities were a pain. At least with the Mini-Holmes he could just drop it off at the Agency if he wanted a private bout.

Ah well, even if the guest of honor didn't show, he was sure he could convince Conan to play. It wasn't like the detective had anything better to do.

At last a white gloved hand landed on the metal handle; pushing open the heavy door that a certain tiny detective had done a while earlier. Kid was certain he'd find one Edogawa Conan on the other side of this door, laying in wait, and ready with some sort of warm greeting—

"KID! Let me go this instant!"

--ah, how he loved being right.

The smiling thief turned toward his pint-sized adversary, lying exactly where he'd expected him to be, all trussed up in one of the traps Kid had laid the night before.

"I missed you too, Tantei-kun." Kid chuckled, blowing a kiss at him. It was really an amusing picture. Conan was all tied up like present, flexible metal wrappings keeping him securely in one spot off to the side of the door. Kid remembered the trap, he'd set it exactly for this scenario. He knew Conan wouldn't be able to keep himself away from one of his heists, even if he'd right out told the detective he wanted to play with someone else. The kid was territorial like that. Kinda like Hakuba. "But I did warn you—I wanted to speak with the little ghost tonight. Have you seen her?"

The bespectacled boy just glared, but the kaitou expected that. What he didn't expect, was something hard thwacking him on the back of the head, followed by a metallic clattering on the ground. He took his eyes off the trussed up detective to look for the source of the hit, finding the old, empty soda can still rattling on the concrete at his feet.

"I'm over here thief."

Surprisingly, the voice came from where Conan lay, where the thief had just been looking less than a few seconds before. "Impressive." Kid mused, glancing over his shoulder. He could see her now, same white hair, same black and white outfit he'd vaguely noted on their first meeting, and the same, unforgettable green eyes he'd seen reflecting beneath a purloined hat. A faint smile made its way across his face as Yuurei helped Conan up, tossing aside the bindings that she'd somehow worked loose. Kid made a mental note to collect them later—maybe they would tell him exactly how she did that. "Ah, it's so nice to see you again Rei-chan."

"I thought you said you didn't pick on kids?" She muttered, more to herself than anything. Conan heard it and just snorted in response. Kid heard it as well, chuckling to himself as he remembered the conversation on a roof-top, "He was being a nosy little Tantei-kun. It was just a form of time-out."

Kid removed the emerald from his jacket pocket, and carelessly held it up to the moonlight. After checking that it wasn't the gem he was after, he spared a glance at the two children on the rooftop—he couldn't describe Yuurei as anything but a child. It made him wonder how she'd managed to take down all of the thieves the police credited to her.

He could see the Mini-Holmes fingering his wrist-watch stun-gun, but knew that the detective wouldn't shoot. Not while the girl was directly infront of him. He was also pretty positive that the white-haired girl wouldn't make a move either, not until he managed to either remove Conan from the equation, or move the playing field.

"Let us take this conversation elsewhere, ne Rei-chan?" Kid asked jovially, the gem still displayed as he stepped backward—keeping them both in his sights. Upon reaching the edge of the building he jumped up on the ledge, eyeing the distance between the museum's roof-top and the neighboring one. It would be doable without his glider, but would be far too much for Conan's short legs—just as he'd planned when he'd chosen the location. He didn't doubt _she _would be able to follow him. If she couldn't…then, well, she wouldn't be worth his time. "Ja, Tantei-kun. Let the big-kids talk now, okay?"

It as a good thing he moved, leaping across to the next roof, or else he would have been in the direct path of the near-invisible dart that the boy let loose. He grinned—he knew that the last crack at the detective's apparent age would break the stalemate. It was too bad he couldn't see how Yuurei had reacted to the revelation of the stun-watch, but sacrifices must be made.

Such were the Kid's thoughts as he picked his way through the Tokyo cityscape, heading for the same building on which he'd first met the thief-catcher. It would be the perfect place for their next meeting, and either the beginning or the end of what looked to be an interesting game. There were some things he needed to get out of the way before the chase began.

--

She hadn't been surprised by the stun-watch, not really. Even if the boy didn't know it, she had witnessed a meeting of the thief and detective once before, when neither knew they were being observed, so she'd already had an idea of the dynamics that went on between them. No, what really surprised her was the way the boy's hard, blue eyes had turned toward her once the thief had vanished to the next roof-top. There was no child in those eyes.

"Get him for me, will you?" were the only words that echoed between them, before the small child of maybe six or seven years turned on his heel, retracing the steps he had taken maybe a half an hour before. Danni stayed looking after him a moment, wondering over the strange behavior. Then again, she had never met any children, only observed them, so how was she to know if it were truly strange?

In any case, she had a thief to bug. Oh, there was no way she was going to try and catch him, just bother him. It wasn't that she believed she couldn't, nor really was it the fact that she found him interesting. No, it was a little tidbit of information she'd learned from the files in that house on Beika Street. Kaitou Kid was an internationally wanted thief, having stolen from at least ten different countries over the course of the persona's career. The capture of such a well-known thief would bring far too much press—almost certainly international press—than the small, mostly unknown vigilante would be able to handle.

Danielle followed the thief's trail across the roof-tops, careful to avoid using her flight as more than a boost to her jumps. She didn't want to blatantly broadcast her powers to a criminal she wasn't going to catch. It wasn't hard to follow the ridiculously clad thief—he seemed to be purposefully charting a course that would be easily accessible, and easily followed. It made sense; the thief had made it perfectly clear that he wanted to speak with her alone.

At last she could see him on the next rooftop, waiting, his white form muted to a dull grey by the absence of light since a rather large bank of clouds had drifted over the moon's face. Danni took a breath, mustered her courage, and jumped.

--

A close examination of the device discovered in the professor's spare room asked more questions then they answered. Ai understood why Agasa had been so interested in the phenomenon—it unnerved her upon seeing the strange, almost ghostly looking light shining from the attic window. Of course, such supernatural musings were instantly shoved aside. Haibara Ai was a scientist above all else, and she believed in facts, not supposition.

That one fact was the main reason behind her investigation, undergone in secret when the professor was otherwise occupied. There wasn't much she could learn from the recording—even zoomed in she was unable to discern a shape in the dirty glass, so her only option at this point was to conduct an on-site investigation. Briefly she wondered why the professor hadn't done one, but figured that Kudou had stopped him. Shinichi obviously knew of the incident, it _was_ his house, and had apparently come to a conclusion upon the source. Ai was miffed he hadn't seen fit to inform her of it, leading her to her current situation.

Regardless of whether Kudou found the circumstances benign or not, Haibara had to check for herself. She had the most to lose if it did indeed turn out to be one of _their_ plots. The defective Sherry was at the top of the Organization's hit list, and while Vermouth seemed to have some interest in protecting Kudou's well-being, Sherry was open game. Ai was almost positive that the only reason she was still alive was because the blonde mistress of disguise hadn't discovered a way to disclose information on her condition without jeopardizing Kudou's. Of course, that didn't mean Vermouth wouldn't find a way, which was why Ai had to take anything that seemed abnormal completely seriously.

Her initial examinations of the lower floors led to some unsatisfying conclusions. The place was definitely being used. There were tracks in the dust in even the most obscure rooms, none in the library (which was understandable since Conan and the professor occasionally used it and as such kept it clean due to the professor's allergies) and the pantry was pretty much empty of all the food she knew had once been in there.

Ai hated being unaware of something, it added variables to the equation that she didn't quite know how to handle. Luckily, she also had the persistence and the ability to define those variables—all it needed was a supplementary investigation or experiment to figure it out. Thinking back to the current variable—the mysterious occupant—she decided that the best place to offer her a clue would be where the light had been recorded, from the attic. If nothing more she could clean off the window a little, to allow for more detail from the monitoring equipment.

Suddenly an idea hit. Why not set up some equipment herself? She still had the small camera she'd removed from the telescope; it wouldn't be hard to find a discrete spot to place the instrument and then sneak back in to collect the equipment.

Smiling to herself at her idea, Ai picked her way up the stairs, withdrawing the small piece of recording equipment and studying the design. It would be fairly simple to set up and operate. All that was left would be to erase the current data. Luckily, she'd saved a copy of the light on her own laptop back at the house.

--

Exhausted, but feeling strangely content, Danni finally made it back to the Kudou home. Yes, she'd finally learned the owners of her current place of residence, and from an unlikely source as well. She thought back to the encounter with the thief, remembering most vividly the conversation before the actual chase began.

"_I would like to give you a warning, Rei-chan," Kid began the moment she touched down on the rooftop, not bothering to turn around and face her. The bandit was sitting comfortably on the edge of the roof, knee drawn up to his chest as he looked out over the lit city. "before this chase becomes any more involved."_

_Danni tilted her head slightly, declining to respond as the thief glanced behind him, the gleam of his monocle shifting the only real indicator of the event. He apparently took her lack of hostile motion as an indication to continue._

"_If you know anything about my history, you know that occasionally danger follows my heists. I'd like to make sure you are fully aware of the risks."_

"_Completely, Mr. Theif." Danni responded, shrugging her shoulders, "But the fact of the matter is, I'm not out to catch you."_

"_Really?" The thief straightened up in interest, for the first time completely turning around to face the vigilante, "Oh do explain."_

"_Too much attention," She grinned slightly, "Just because you are creating a billboard for your enemies, doesn't mean I want to."_

"_Whatever gives you that idea?"_

"_I've done my own research, Kid. There are volumes on you sitting down on Beika Street."_

_Instead of the shock, or annoyance she expected, the thief responded with a quiet laugh, "Ah, the Kudou place. I wonder if he knew his library was public knowledge." Danni thought about asking, but decided against it, especially as the bandit stood up and stretched his arms above his head, apparently loosening the muscles._

"_So," he said at length, "Now that the matter is squared away…Up for a game, Rei-chan?"_

"_I'll give you a 10 second head start."_

"_How generous."_

--

The resulting chase had been quite a bit of fun. She'd take to the air after about five minutes—the white-clad thief was surprisingly slippery. Of course he'd have to be to elude the police for all those years. However, just because she flew didn't mean she let him see that. Popping up randomly behind him had resulted in quite a few interesting reactions. She'd lost him after about twenty minutes, much to her annoyance, but in the end it was a successful night, giving her some information to mull over as she slipped through the roof to her chosen abode, initiating the change unconsciously as her feet touched the ground.

It was surprisingly light in the usually dim attic, moonlight filtering through what seemed to be a significantly lessened layer of dust on the window. Danni padded over to it, a little curious about the change, before shrugging it off. Occasionally she wiped away at it to let her see the sky and stars, and must have overdone it last time. It didn't really matter, and indeed she rather enjoyed the view. It wasn't raining this time, and even the earlier clouds had rolled on by, leaving the half-moon to shine merrily down on the neighborhood. Smiling, the girl started to hum a soft tune under her breath, turning away from the window and padding back into her den.

She was really beginning to love this place. No Vlad. No melevolent ghosts. And a rather interesting Phantom Thief to chase. Now, the only things she needed were a steady income and a couple of friends.

Things were going pretty well.

--

Hidden in the park, a familiar spot of ground began to shine faintly, the surrounding grass swaying as if in an unfelt breeze.

A/N: I'm so sorry! This chapter is kinda…bleh…and late. The encounter with Kaito and Danni didn't go the way I wanted it to—it just didn't want to happen, period. What I have is the best it came out, and I don't want to delay the chapter much longer. I had fun with Kid, and Conan and Nakamori though. Ai is kinda interesting too. I wonder if I'll be able to work in the rest of the Shounen Tantei…and bring back Ran from her trip…meh…

Anyways, hope this chapter doesn't scare you guys away. I'm hoping the next chapter will be better. And longer. Maybe I'll try another 6k one…hm…

Thanks to those of you who reviewed! I love reading them so much If you ever have a question or concern just drop it in a review or a pm, I'll either clear it up or make plans to do so in a later chapter.

Oh yes, one thing. I mixed up the words. I've come to be aware that Beika is actually the district, and Baika is the street. Oh well, it's going to be opposite in this fic...it's just one letter z-z;

TBC


	10. Chapter 10 Social Networking I

Chapter 10 – Social Networking

"Urg, where the heck are they all coming from?" Danni made a disgusted face as she wiped away the slimy remains of her latest spooky encounter. She didn't know how the ghosts were getting through to the mortal realm; they were all weak or under-developed so she doubted they had any kind of dimension ripping abilities. Randomly forming portals shouldn't last as long as this recent spree of ghosts.

Danielle sighed and looked around, eyes narrowing and her jaw tightening in thought as she surveyed the goo-splattered area. That was another interesting point about these encounters—they were all happening in the very same area, around roughly the same time. She frequented this park often, so she should know if there was a stable ghost portal around the area. She hadn't sensed anything during the day; it seemed to only be at night when her ghost sense went off around the park. It had gotten to the point where she'd shifted her routine, sleeping later into the day in order to stay out later, making purposeful efforts to hang around the affected area more so than usual. It was a fortunate thing that she did so; the recent round of proto-spooks would definitely be able to cause some damage before they withered away due to lack of stable ectoplasm.

She didn't understand. It'd been a week since they'd suddenly begun showing up, it happened pretty much within a day or two of her encounter with THE thief, and she was no closer to understanding the cause of it all. Danni growled softly in frustration and kicked at a tree root, having checked every area in the park twice without any sign of ectoplasmic activity—it was just getting frustrating!

As if to make matters worse, her breath hitched just as she was about to call it quits and head home for the night, ejecting a faintly luminescent blue mist onto the night air. She growled again at her ghost sense, kicking into the sky to get a better view of the immediate area. There was one good thing about the location—the lack of light made spotting a ghostly glow quite easily, even in the heavier forested sections. Green eyes snapped toward a faint glimmer, and Danni shot toward it, the chill of the ghost's presence growing stronger as she neared.

Unlike most of her ghost encounters, there wasn't an ambush waiting for her as she slipped beneath the sparse canopy of leaves. Apparently she'd been alerted in time to arrive before the spook was able to fully manifest, and was able to catch a good look at its method of arrival. There was a small, glowing vortex set amongst the quivering green grass, a hypnotic spiral that acted as a gateway between the ghost zone and the human world. Seeing the portal threw her back to the recent past, and even the surroundings snapped into place in accordance with the memory.

This was the exact same spot as the portal a few weeks ago! It was significantly smaller in size than the original, but it wasn't like there was a standard portal size. Why was it here? A random portal did not pop up in exactly the same place within such a short amount of time—it just didn't make sense!

Unfortunately, Danni's musings on ecto-physics were cut short as the portal began to ripple, and a green blur shot out accompanied by what seemed to be a childish exclamation of surprise and excitement. Danni sprang back, drawing a small amount of energy into her fists—it was all she could spare since she'd had to spend some destroying the spook earlier. She didn't have the luxury of a Fenton Thermos, or even a stable portal to evict the unwanted denizens of the Ghost Zone, so Danni had little choice but to completely destroy each specter as she found them. Unfortunately destroying was more difficult than capturing, and took far more energy.

Her heart sank as she realized this ghost was unlikely to be a mindless, instinct driven mass of ectoplasm and post-human consciousness like the previous ones. It was giving her a completely different feel from her ghost sense, not to mention she'd actually heard spoken words jumbled into the yell. Her conclusion was proven correct when the green blur finally quit bouncing around the area, landing on the grass before her and revealing a decidedly humanoid spook.

"That was fun! Can we do it again?"

It was most assuredly a child's voice, and even seemed to be child-like in shape and temperament. It—he was turned away from her, and addressing something in front of him. She couldn't see from her vantage point, hidden as she was from ducking behind a tree when the ghost had emerged from the portal, but the annoyed reply was quite audible.

"No you twit, the portal closed again."

"Aww…"

"Sorry to interrupt," Danni found herself saying, stepping out from behind the tree, the small energy-ball still glowing faintly from around her fist, "But you better tell me what you're doing in my territory."

The kid froze and spun around, giving Danni her first good look at him. He was smaller than she was, but not by much, sea-green hair sweeping to one side and giving a slight hint of color to the almost paper-white face and color-less grey eyes. He was wearing what looked to be a modified police uniform, done in green and white instead of navy blue. The second voice she heard turned out to be some sort of skeletal…creature. She tentatively labeled it as a dog, to go with the police theme.

"Oh for Pete's sake." The dog whined, springing to its Master's side and bearing its teeth (not that there was anything covering them in the first place) "There's another halfa-brat?"

Another…? That meant this pair knew Danny! This wasn't good. It wasn't good at all. There was no way she'd be able to completely atomize a ghost that had fought against her cousin, it was beyond her current capacities to do so safely. _Stay calm Danielle_, she told herself, keeping up the confident façade, _you'll think of something._

"A cute halfa-brat." The boy responded with a slow smile, a response that apparently surprised both his partner and the afore-mentioned girl. The bony canine's head nearly did a complete 180, jaw hanging open in surprise, "You _have_ got to be jokin—"

The humanoid ghost kicked the dog lightly, muttering a quick 'shut-up!' before returning his attention to the confused halfa, "So what's a pretty little spirit like you doing out here this late at night?"

"Defending _my_ territory from invading spooks like you." She retorted, still not loosening the energy blast even though he didn't seem to want to fight. She did not want to back down and show a weakness he could exploit. "How did you get here?"

"The portal, duh." The utterly childish response completely destroyed the cool image the miniaturized police ghost had tried to cultivate, "It's connected to my area of the ghost-zone. I just found it and decided to explore; Captain Youngblood at your service!"

"You aren't a pirate anymore, remember?"

"So? I'm a police captain!"

Danni really didn't know what to do. Despite the negative attitude of the dog-thing, the boy didn't seem interested in causing trouble. She wasn't confident in her energy stores to take him on either. As much as it pained her to do it, it would be better to try and solve this without fighting if it was at all possible. She'd already expended more than enough energy tonight from destroying the first ghost, a humanoid ghost would be at least ten times more difficult in both power and cunning. "Could you maybe go back? This area isn't used to ghosts, and I've had my hands full with all of the half-formed blobs popping up recently."

"Aww…but I just want to hangout in the living-world for a while." Youngblood pouted, "I promise I won't try and enslave the city! I swore off that when The Halfa kicked me back into the Ghost Zone for the fifteenth time." Danni raised an eyebrow at the last remark, muffling a laugh at the image created by it. Youngblood seemed put-off by her amusement, before the proverbial light bulb flickered into existence over his head, "I got it! You let me hang out for a day or so, and I'll get my crew—("Squad." The sulking skeleton interjected)—to guard the portal from our side. It seems to open up every night or so. They'd be able to stop the newbie ghosts from bothering you, and I'd get my vacation. Deal?"

Danni thought it over, before reabsorbing the energy in her hand, reaching out and sliding her black-gloved hand into the ghost's green-gloved one, "Deal. But if you cause any trouble, I'm going to be the one kicking you back through that portal when it opens again, understood?"

"Yes Ma'am!" The police-wannabe ghost snapped into a sloppy salute, rising up into the sky with the skeleton in close pursuit. It seemed to have decided it wanted nothing to do with the hybrid—probably because it held a grudge against her cousin. That suited her fine—at least the boy had decided to be reasonable. Although, judging by his initial reaction to her, the fact that she was a girl around his apparent age managed to make up for the fact that she was pretty much a female Danny Phantom look-alike.

For some reason she didn't think he would go back on his promise, and it was because of that gut feeling that she let Youngblood go on his merry way, heading back home for some much needed sleep.

--

It had been a while since he last logged on, but at length Conan once again found himself with a sleepless night. It wasn't so much any one incident that led the child to open up the otherwise unused file, and to type in the log-in information, but just a general feeling of restlessness that permeated his life. Ever since the last heist things had slowed down, both on the work side and on the personal. Conan, much like his literary idol, Sherlock Holmes, hated inaction more than anything. Since he was far too responsible a boy to follow in his idol's footsteps and seek stimulation in some drug, he turned to other methods.

Luckily, video games were a mind-numbing solution to this problem, and especially so when the video game had a link to a personal case. Conan hadn't forgotten the issue of the tenant in his home, or the apparent link between him or her and the 'GhostBoy' he'd met online, but he thought of the case as a curiosity, and as such didn't place much importance on solving it. The runaway had been living in his home for well over a month without causing problems—there were no missing items, the house wasn't disturbed too much, and it wasn't like there was anyone in residence anyway—so Conan didn't see any reason to pry into the whos, hows, and whys. It was much the way he viewed Kid; he was an interesting opponent, and a curiosity, but there were bigger fish to fry.

Of course, when he had nothing better to do, the smaller fish were fair game as well.

As the game screen loaded Conan reached into his desk, withdrawing the notebook that he'd used upon his last foray into the world of DOOMED. Looking back, he was quite annoyed at the small amount of information he'd gleaned from the encounter, it wounded his pride as a detective to be so…unsuccessful. True, he'd been rather tired at that point, but still.

Conan's character appeared in the center of the town, exactly where he'd logged out some week or two ago. A quick check to the list showed that, once again there were few people on this certain level. Conan noted briefly that his power-ups had vanished with the logging out, but it didn't bother him. They wouldn't be difficult to regain.

He was about to start the quest to regain some of the more important ones when a small message box appeared in the corner of the screen. An eyebrow rose as he read the message, noting the sender at the same time. He hadn't expected FryerTuck to add him to his friend's list, nor to be noticed so quickly. The social teenager (just a rough estimate based on Conan's recollection of the boy's personality) was pretty much demanding for some help with something, probably cheat finding or something similar. The boy almost scowled at the thought of being used like that, before shrugging it off and filing it under an unfortunate necessity. He needed to be needed; otherwise there would be no reason for them to interact. It was the way of business.

After he sent back an inquiry, Fryer told him to meet at the next level up, supplying a special item to allow him to bypass the experience limit. The teenager seemed slightly harried, even a tiny bit worried in the messages, something that intrigued the detective and pushed him to hurry.

And so, a few minutes found Shintantei waiting at the indicated spot, anticipating the arrival of the yellow-suited dark-skinned avatar. FryerTuck appeared soon after, stepping out of a nearby warp portal that led from the outside wilderness. This level seemed to be some sort of astral realm, undefined and surreal in a way that was only possible in video games. It was a large difference from the ones before—at least they'd been modeled after existing environments.

"Sorry for bothering you about this." Came the Fryer's opening message, the avatar coming to a stop nearly in the center of Conan's screen, "But Danny and I have an issue with someone, and I could really use some help."

"Danny?" Conan responded, feigning ignorance in an effort to confirm his earlier speculation. The other was silent for a moment, probably kicking himself over the slip once it'd been pointed out for him. At length he reluctantly confirmed that "Ghost" was indeed Danny, before abruptly shifting the topic again, "This guy—Technus—got a hold of one of the most powerful cheats in the game, and while Ghost has a similar one he's having trouble. Another friend of mine knows this mega-cheat that was added with the recent upgrade, but neither of us can decipher the code needed in order to activate it. Come on Shin, help us?"

Conan shrugged, even though he knew that there was no way the other could see it, typing only a short response.

"Lead the way."

--

Sam waited.

Tucker had told her that he had a friend that would definitely be able to help, and had promptly left to retrieve that friend. She highly doubted it; her connections in the game's company had informed her that this particular code had required an outside source to create an insane level of difficulty. She'd only mentioned it in passing to Tucker, along with a list of easier obtained powers. At first the boy hadn't seemed interested in this particular one, but then his attitude had suddenly changed upon the arrival of this 'Shintantei'.

She'd heard about this newbie from both Danny and Tucker—more Tucker since the dark-skinned boy loved to brag about how he'd discovered him—and about his "uber" code-breaking skills. Apparently he'd bumped into the duo not long after Sam had been forced offline by her parents, appearing three levels above where he belonged, conveniently in place to lead Tucker and Danny to victory against one of the better players in the game, Zaurihin. It was just far too convenient for her tastes. Tucker always told her to chill—it was just a game, not a life or death situation—but Sam couldn't help it. Technus's presence in the game proved that Danny's enemies could use their favorite past-time against him.

Sam shook her head, tossing the train of thought aside. After all, she had promised Tucker she'd give this guy a chance. If he really was as good as he claimed, then maybe they could finally lock Technus up for good. She hadn't told the rest of the trio, but this particular cheat had been created to counter the appearance of Danny and Technus' ghost powers. The developers had labeled it as a mod, or a hack in the game, but for some reason wasn't able to shut them down from the administrative side, and so they implemented a counter-measure. Of course, should just anyone stumble across the power, then it would give them a huge advantage over normal players—hence the tight security.

Searching for something to distract her from the faint explosions in the background—evidence of the battle between spirits—she took a moment to study her modified character, feeling a faint sense of loss at the absence of the tall, broad-shouldered Chaos she'd grown infamous with. Some time back, Danny and Tucker had ganged up on her and persuaded her to change the model, taking after them and actually basing the avatar after her normal appearance. She'd resisted at first, but then Danny had pointed out that losing to a girl-ish avatar was far more humiliating to the average DOOMED player than the tall, powerful looking monster like the original. She had conceded the point to him, and created this alternate model. Of course, she'd refused to do anything more than change the style of the body—she _refused_ to consider changing the color-scheme to pink and white as tucker had joking-ly suggested. While yes, it added to the humiliation factor, there were just some lines that Sam would not cross.

Her mind was drawn out of the past at the creation of a temporary portal next to her character, and she reached to the desk and picked up the high-tech helmet controller from the desk. Sam settled it gently on her black-haired head, amethyst eyes closing as she waited for her senses to adjust. When she opened them again, she WAS Chaos, facing the glowing yellow portal as it spit out two figures in front of her.

There were times she loved being rich and the occasional toys she indulged in were the reasons for those times. These VR helmets for example; they'd only been recently released with DOOMED's latest upgrade, the technology modeled after some bulky cocoon-type system released in Japan roughly half a year ago. She'd splurged last Christmas, buying a set of the ridiculously expensive equipment for herself and Tucker. Danny didn't need it, not with the way he could literally pull himself into the game.

Chaos waited patiently as the data consolidated around her friend, taking her eyes off the yellow-suited Fryer and examining his compatriot. The stiff posture of the character, not to mention the lack of facial expression and movement led her to the conclusion that it was a key-board player. It made sense considering the majority of the population fell under that category. He didn't look like much, a tall and slender blackish brown-haired avatar, eye color impossible to determine through the red visor that covered them. He had a similar battle-suit to Danny's, a base metallic blue color with luminescent patches of red light creating a random design across it.

"So, this is him, Tuck?" She wasn't convinced that some newbie (it only took a vague thought to check his level and confirm the fact) would be able to crack the code that even stumped someone like Tucker. Her African American friend nodded, motioning for this 'Shintantei' to follow as he started off down the path toward the cave entrance, "This is Shin. Last time he proved to be quite good with the game's usual puzzles and riddles so I figured there was no harm done."

Chaos shrugged, jogging a little ways behind the two, keeping an eye on the sky just in case the aerial battle between the two ghosts decided to head their way. Danny had said he'd try to keep the upgraded Technus busy while they searched for whatever they could that would give them an upper hand. None of them were exactly sure why, although Tuck had a few theories, but the Technology-obsessed ghost always had the upper hand when he and Danny fought inside this world. That was probably the reason he kept choosing it as the battle-ground.

An explosion sounded in the distance as they finally reached where her sources said the cheat was hidden. It was closer than the last she'd heard; telling her that despite Danny's attempts Technus was managing to push him back. "Here." She began hurriedly, drawing the newcomer's attention to the wall closest to the cave entrance, upon which a line of stick-figures were drawn crudely. "All we've been able to figure out is that it is some kind of code."

"Indeed it is." Shin's response wasn't in sound like her's and Tuck's were, but appeared in a speech bubble next to the avatar. Chaos sighed; she never interacted with anyone but Tuck and Ghost and had gotten used to hearing actual voices. When everything seemed as real as it did with the VR helmet, it was just odd to see a floating speech-bubble next to someone.

The girl wondered what was going through the new-comer's head as he studied the code. After a good five minutes without another comment she found herself growing impatient, giving a sharp "Well?" They didn't have much time, from the sounds of things the fight was getting closer every second. Unless the kid had all sounds completely muted, even he should be able to hear the indicators of battle in the distance, and Tuck had to have explained something about their time-limit. Danny couldn't keep the technology-obsessed ghost busy forever.

"Almost done." Came the short response, and Chaos felt the doubt creep forward once again.

--

Conan turned away from the computer screen and back to his work, glancing between an open book and the notebook he was scribbling hastily in. A smile flickered on his face as he worked on piecing the code together; he'd immediately recognized the origin upon seeing it. He had to admit, it would be an extremely difficult problem to the average teenager. However, he doubted the creator had guessed that a great detective AND a Sherlock Holmes' fanatic would run across it.

Of course Conan had recognized the dancing men, and remembering the Holmes case involving them had led him to extract the novel. Using Holmes' deduction as a base, it was only a matter of time before Conan figured out the rest of the cipher. As he worked he absently wondered if his Dad had taken up video game design again, it seemed like just the type of problem he would put in. He hadn't heard from his father since the Cocoon incident, so for all he knew Kudou Yuusaku could have taken up a new hobby.

A faint sound from the screen attracted his attention, signaling that the girl was getting impatient again. It aggravated him that she was so pushy—it was just a game. Even if they lost now they could go back and challenge the other player to a rematch. It wasn't like the fate of the world rested upon the outcome of the match.

The time limit must have been one of the conditions of the battle—maybe it's a one on one fight, while the supporting team races to unlock a weapon or power that would give their champion the upper hand. If it was true, and the time-limit was a problem, then why did they pick this one? Sure, he'd be able to crack the code given just another minute to verify his conclusions, but there was no way they could have known that he would log on in time to be of any assistance in the matter. Plus, in those kinds of contests, don't the participating characters need to register before-hand?

Ah well. It was an interesting little puzzle, but not one he was willing to stress over. It'd just been good timing on both of their parts.

The boy looked down at the scribbling on the paper, noticing a little belatedly that he'd actually written on the lower half of his case files. The detective shrugged in response; he hadn't had much written beforehand, it wouldn't take much to recopy them onto a clean sheet of paper.

Another beep, signaling yet another message rang in his ears just as he finished up the verification. The boy sighed, rubbed the bridge of his nose as he muttered about impatient females, and returned to the screen. There he brought up the input box, and quickly typed in the deciphered key words, adding a small note to the side for the benefit of his two companions.

"Finished."

--

A/N: Okay…not quite to 6k, only around 4.5k, but I want to get this out on Monday (today) and the next section isn't cooperating correctly. I need to map out the next part and figure out how to write it, but that would take me over my self-imposed deadline so….

Sorry, no Kaito in this one. It's too late at night and I figure unless there's a heist going on he'll be going to sleep at a decent time or else he'll incur the wrath of one police Inspector's daughter. I can see Aoko becoming fiercely protective if she sees Kaito depriving himself of sleep for some reason n.n;

…for the record, I have no idea why I threw in Youngblood originally. Since then I've come up with some interesting things that he'll help with so I see some fun in the future. The small crush on Danni I thought was cute, but it's nothing major, just a puppy-love type thing. I figure he doesn't see many ghosts his apparent age—especially ones who don't shoot first and ask questions later.

By the way, yes I did redesign Sam's DOOMED Avatar. It was mostly 'cause I wanted Conan to know right away that she was a girl. Don't get angry at me for that z-z The original Chaos is pretty misleading.

Anyways hope y'all like it and leave meh a pretty review before you go. The battle with Technus will be continued in Social Networking part II

TBC


	11. Chapter 11 Social Networking II

Chapter 11 – Social Networking II

"Is that the best that you can do, Child?" Technus's mocking laugh seemed to echo from every direction, ever changing as Danny grit his teeth and fired blast after glowing green blast wherever he caught sight of the technology-based apparition. Each and every shot was dodged or otherwise deflected. If Danny didn't know any better, he'd say it was the very environment that was supplying his enemy with the seemingly endless supply of stamina. They'd been going at it for nearly half an hour now, beginning as evenly matched. The halfa couldn't help the eventual exhaustion, and it seemed that as he grew weaker, Technus just kept going.

'_Come on Sam…'_ He thought back to his friends, just barely avoiding one of the mechanical tentacles. A pulsing blast flew from his hand and knocked the appendage away, conveniently propelling him further from the dangerous weapon. He could only spare a glance in the vague direction of his friends' location before he was forced to return his full attention to the gabbering ghost that was currently trying to make shish-kabob out of him. He'd long since given up attempting to toss around some form of witty banter, Technus talked more than enough for the both of them anyway, but it didn't deter the long-winded ghost from mocking him with every single unnecessary breath he took. Frankly it was starting to tick Danny off.

Another shot, but Danny didn't have time to dodge this one; instead he crossed his arms in front of him, the searing pain that accompanied the blue-colored blast biting into his forearms as if the metallic armor meant nothing to it. He was forced back rapidly by the projectile, and a quick turn of his head informed him that the rocky ground was approaching _extremely _quickly.

The ghost boy stopped himself just in time, taking stock of his surroundings as he hovered less than two feet from smashing into a particularly nasty looking rock formation. It was with a sharp feeling of dread that he recognized the area, especially the barely visible path and the opening set into the landscape.

"Danny!" Sure enough, he could hear Sam's voice from the opening, echoing slightly as she ran outside at his appearance, "Danny! We got it! We got it!"

He barely registered her words, because in the corner of his eye he saw Technus hovering a little ways in the distance, another energy blast aimed—not at him—directly at his friend. He reacted on instinct, crossing the paltry 15 feet between him and the opening, arriving mere seconds before his adversary released the attack. He knocked Sam out of the way,and experienced yet another bout of pain from the impacted blast. Danny had enough sense left outside the pain—one more hit like that and his character would need a respawn—to turn himself intangible as he was knocked back again, just in time to pass through Shintantei—

—and get thrown out of the game. Normally that wouldn't be too big of a deal; all he needed to do was repossess his character by phasing into the game again. The problem was, he'd been thrown out of the wrong computer.

"_Damn. Disconnected."_ Danny shook his head as he tried to rid himself of the dizziness that had accompanied his forced ejection from the game. He flicked invisible automatically, as soon as he realized that he did not recognize his current location, nor could he understand the hissed words that sounded a little close for comfort. Confused green eyes landed on the child that sat in front of the computer, jaw dropping a little as he took in the appearance and apparent age of the only other person in the room. A glance at the screen confirmed his suspicion, where the boy was entering the log-in information for Shintantei.

_­'What the…He's waaay too mature to be some kid. Not to mention those puzzles. It's impossible!'_

As interesting as the thought was he had a job to finish. Unfortunately, since he'd come out through the wrong end of the internet, he couldn't get back into his character unless he logged on, which he couldn't if Shin—the kid was doing so. Now, normally Danny had a policy to avoid possession unless the circumstances were dire, but as he slid into the body of the kid he realized he didn't have much choice at the moment. The boy's conscious was suppressed without much trouble, just a slight bit of unexpected resistance before settling down like every other person he'd possessed over the years.

The perspective felt totally alien as Danny looked out through the boy's eyes, everything was too big, and he was too small. Luckily he'd gone through a similar situation when he'd over-shadowed his father, just in the opposite direction, so he was able to shake it off within a few seconds. As too-small fingers flew over the keyboard, entering GhostBoy's own information into the log-in screen, an open notebook set next to the keyboard caught the hybrid's eye. He glanced over it curiously, taking in the neat foreign looking symbols that covered the page. What really made him pause wasn't the obviously Asian writing, but the smattering of English lettering that he could pick out within the text.

His username came up a number of times, so did his _real_ name.

'_Is this kid…investigating me?'_ The thought creeped him out more than he cared to admit, wondering if Vlad had stooped low enough to send human pawns after him again. It didn't make much sense. Vlad most likely already knew of Danny's DOOMED identity, and probably didn't care too much about the video game that took up much of the teenager's limited free-time. But…who else would care?

All of a sudden, as the cursor hovered over the 'log-in' button, Danny wished he could just stay and do some investigating of his own. But if the kid hadn't lied—Danny was a little dubious about the information previously given by Shintantei, this kid was NOT in his teens—then he was currently located in Japan, which was way too far away from home to hang around on an impulse. Plus, he had a ghost to take care of, and he'd left Sam and Tucker on their own for too long.

After clicking the button Danny quickly floated out of the kid, diving into the computer and possessing his character. He had to work quickly, before the kid woke up completely and tossed off the disorientation that came with being over-shadowed.

Once the game-world appeared around him the hybrid quickly glanced around, noticing his two friends trying to defend the cave entrance. An idea hit him at that very moment, causing him to cut off Sam's exclaimation at his reappearance, "Tuck, I'm gonna need to borrow your computer."

"Huh?" was all the dark-skinned boy was able to get off before Danny flew directly into his avatar.

--

"Urgh…" Conan put a hand to his head, shaking off the odd woozy-ness that clouded his mind. It was quick to clear, and Conan put the cause at playing too much videogames. He wasn't used to spending prolonged time at the computer, staring at the screen, so it made sense as a possible cause. He made a mental note to take a break after he finished with this current issue.

The screen still sat at 'Disconnected', causing the detective the frown. He could have sworn he'd logged in…Maybe he'd been immediately booted from the server upon logging in. Ah well. Now if only he could get rid of this growing headache.

--

Danny next found himself hovering in the middle of Tucker's room. His friend was startled, if not slightly peeved to find the white and red 'Disconnected' blinking on his screen. "Hey! What was that for?"

"No time to explain." The ghost-child muttered, pushing his friend's chair out of the way as he logged on for the third time that day. The reason he'd taken over Tucker's computer was to make a connection from Amity Park, not to mention log-out of Shintantei's. If that kid had woken up to find GhostBoy logged in, and then logged him off, it would have thrown Danny right back out into his room. In Japan. Was Danny the only one to realize what a problem that would be?

--

She was all alone now. Ghost and Tuck had both disappeared, and Shin had yet to return. That left Chaos all on her lonesome, the only thing between Technus, and the end of the battle. Her hand curled around the metal item, the small, compact device that Shintantei had pulled out of a recess in the cave wall after announcing his success.

There weren't many times when she didn't have someone with her, someone to support her as she faced down an adversary. That wasn't to say that she couldn't, oh no, Sam Manson was nothing like the prissy stuck-up girls who screamed at the slightest sign of trouble and ran behind the nearest person in sight. She was just…nervous, that was all.

She set her jaw, tearing her eyes briefly from the insane ghost (who was currently laughing his head off at 'eliminating' the other two members of her team) and looking down at the only weapon she had at the moment. Her contact's words kept running through her head, explaining in his whispering way exactly how it was supposed to work. It was a one time shot, and if she was mistaken on how to use it then her only chance would be to keep the ghost busy in time for Danny and Tucker to work out some sort of plan.

"You're the last one child." The ghost wheezed, his bulky frame filling up the entire entry way. He had her trapped—the only way out at this point would be to log out. Unfortunately that would allow Technus an undisturbed time to mess with the very fabric of the game, a possibility that had been a growing fear every time Technus reappeared within the confines of DOOMED.

It had been bothering her for a while—why did Technus follow (most of) the preset rules that governed the game's programming? She'd seen what he'd done with machines, with super-computers, she'd even heard about him taking over a satellite, and yet he allowed a mere program to keep him in line. There were a couple theories developed between her and Tucker (they both felt Danny had much more to worry about at the moment) ranging from Technus' tendency to be utterly dense at times, to him not really taking these game-world battle's seriously.

Whatever the reason, she was still the only one left, and she had to do something. She ducked to the side as Technus finished his gloating, deciding to play duck-hunter from his position in the doorway, lobbing the (relatively smaller) blue projectiles directly at her. The space available to her was rather limited, but large enough that her quick reflexes and natural athleticisms kept her ahead of the rather slow shots of the ghost. With her VR helmet she held the fastest reflex time in the game, only second to Technus and Danny because they controlled their characters directly.

Roll, duck, dodge, a faint wince as the dull simulated pain spiked to inform her that she'd just barely avoided that blast. Luckily the shots were slowing down, Technus was laughing his fool head off at her predicament and as such his volley was lessening. A bit more. Just a little bit more. She only needed ten seconds…

Her luck changed, a flash of light announcing Danny's reappearance as his black and white form shimmered into view. "Sam! Everything okay?"

"Took you long enough." She shot back, taking advantage of Technus' surprise to find a semi-decent place to take cover, "Keep him busy, will you?"

Danny shot her an odd look, but didn't question, tackling the technological ghost and knocking him to the ground, taking the fight to close-range. Meanwhile Chaos fiddled with the cubical device she'd managed to keep a hold on during her mad scramble earlier, finding a catch in the seemingly unbroken metallic cube. It was a tiny miniature lock, unlocked by what seemed to be a set of four numbers.

She felt like exploding upon seeing the input box flash on the edge of her vision, the blinking cursor mocking her. She didn't even have the clue, or the password—Shin had been knocked out of the game before he could do more than retrieve the item and hand it to her. Granted, she'd been slightly hasty but…

A few random numbers left her frustrated, and a quick glance at the battle showed that Danny was beginning to tire. He'd been in and out of the game, fighting for nearly three-quarters of an hour now, so she knew he was on his last leg. Sam glared at the unresponsive object "What's the stupid password!?"

"14…12"

The text bubble seemed to be floating in mid-air, off to her right. Shintantei had finally decided to log back on, the connection probably slowed because of the large amount of activity going on in one area. Her guess was probably correct, because the avatar froze completely for a few seconds before winking out of existence.

'_Probably crashed'_ the thought flitted through her mind as she quickly input the numbers, letting out a sigh of relief when there was a near inaudible click, and the cube sprang apart to reveal what looked like a large red button. Typical.

She pressed it.

--

Heh, trust his Dad to pick that number. Conan had no doubts as to the author of that riddle. He even made a mental note to ask his Dad about it the next time he called.

Conan yawned, powering the computer down as he did so. When it disconnected for the third time he had decided to finally call it quits, only hoping he'd been able to get that message through. He'd barely been able to see through the glitching screen, only getting a few clear pictures of the battle before his computer died. While it was a decent model for kid's games and internet research, there were times he wished he could access his own money and purchase an up to date machine. Mouri's eight year old computer was getting on his nerves.

The boy flipped his notebook shut (cleverly disguised by a 'Homework' label) and slid it back into the drawer, stifling yet another yawn as he meandered over to the bed. His head was pounding, alleviated a little when he switched off the overhead light, but the low drums continued to roll around his skull. He didn't really understand it, but he didn't really want to think too much right now. It was hard to keep a continual train of thought with the unexpected annoyance.

The last thing that flitted through his mind as he settled down to sleep, was the white and black figure that he'd picked out from the set of frozen screen caps right before the computer crashed, seemed extremely familiar.

--

"Ow, ow, ow" Danny hissed to himself, rubbing his head and pushing himself unsteadily to his feet. To his surprise—and annoyance—he'd once again been forcible ejected from the DOOMED server, sending him flying into Tucker's bed-room wall and resulting in his current state of pain.

"Dude, what happened?" Tucker finally asked. The dark-skinned boy had been sitting at his desk when his friend was thrown across the room, playing one of the games from his extremely large collection on his PDA. He hadn't been paying too much attention to the computer, growing bored (and slightly sick) from the fast moving camera and sudden perspective shifts as Danny had engaged the ghost 1 on 1.

"I have no idea. One minute I was being pounded in the face, the next, my face is in the wall."

"Guys!" A video chat suddenly opened on the computer screen, minimizing the familiar 'Disconnected' screen that mocked Danny with the amount of times he'd seen it today. Sam was featured predominantly in the window, her VR helmet removed and sitting on the wooden desk as she adjusted the camera. "It worked! Technus was booted out of the game."

"Great." Danny groaned, giving Tucker a quick, pointed look and the Techno-geek sighed, rooting through a pile of discarded gadgets and gizmos on his desk to withdraw a round, silver thermos. The hybrid took it gratefully, his hand wrapping around the familiar cold metal casing, "That means he should be down in my parent's lab. Gotta go!"

At the ghost-boy's disappearance, Tucked gave Sam's chat a sideways glance, flicking on his own camera, "Just what did that cheat do anyway?"

"Expelled anything foreign from the system, and will block it until the next major upgrade. It's like a ghost shield for the entire server."

An eyebrow raised, "And how do you know this?"

Sam mirrored the gesture, "Who do you think told them that they were having ghost problems? Thanks to my uncle's connections, I was able to sign on as a security consultant."

"Really?" Interest piqued; Tucker leaned over, "Hey, do you think—"

"No."

"But…"

"I said no, Tucker. "

"Aww…drat."

There was silence as Tucker stewed over his unvoiced idea being shot down. Really, there were soo many possibilities for the average techno-geek when their friend had access to an international game's code and development team. As he thought back over the conversation, something hit him, and he leaned toward the computer, pushing his black-framed glasses up to the bridge of his nose, "You said this shield blocks all foreign, ghost based data, right?"

"Yep."

"What about Danny?"

"…At least I know what to get him for an early birthday." Both of the teenagers laughed at that. Danny had been the only one of them not to get a VR helmet. Now, it seemed like it was time for him to join the club.

--

A/N: Done! This chapter was hard. It's mostly Danny and Sam centric—the DCMK characters were getting a bit more time, so it makes sense that this little episode belongs to the original Danny Phantom crew.

As for Danny's little trip to Japan—the way I see it is that Danny over-shadows his avatar when he enters the game (Technus just creates his own) and so if he tried to over-shadow another character (Shintantei for example) then he'd be pulled along that character's connection, spitting him out into the real-world at the other end of the internet. Of course the transfer would end up with a forced disconnect from the server. …It all makes sense in my head.

Anyway, now Danny suspects that there is something up with Shin, but he's too curious to just cut ties with him. I'm thinking Danny might try to do a bit of investigation of his own next time they meet.

As for Sam having an inside job and yet her ignorance about the code, well, she knew what it was, and what it did. But, she wasn't sure how to use it or how to even find it exactly. She'd only been active in the planning, not the actual design and implementation. By the way, for those who don't know, Sam's family is filthy rich and most likely has many connections.

-_Cheesy announcer voice- _Next time…Youngblood grew tired of wandering on his own, so he decided to pester a certain hybrid clone. Unfortunately for the both of them, there is one adult who is childish enough to be able to see the police-ghost who should only be able to be seen by kids.

TBC…

(Review! And tell me what you think of this chapter. I'm…a little uncertain about some parts.)


	12. Chapter 12 Not So Fair Day

Chapter 12 - Not So Fair Day

Morning came around far too soon for Danni's liking. She'd been rather enjoying the deep, restful sleep she'd fallen into as soon as she got home. Much to her annoyance she didn't even get to finish off the sleep by waking up in her own time, the job being done for her by an insistent poking and prodding into her rib-cage. No matter how she twisted or turned it kept poking her and it even got to the point where she growled in annoyance and swatted at it, sitting up blearily and looking for the source of her agitation. Smoldering now-green eyes glared sleepily at the sheepish, paper-white face of her most recent ghostly visitor. Youngblood floated just a little off to the side of her chair-turned-bed, a long stick in hand that would account for the irritating feeling that had been assaulting her all morning.

"You have two seconds to explain." She began, the weight of her glare causing the ghost to chuckle nervously, "I don't like being woken up."

"I…was bored?" The result of the answer/question just led to narrowed eyes on Danni's part. Youngblood took a metaphysical step backwards (since he wasn't actually standing on anything) when a ring appeared around his formerly sleeping victim's waist. His self-preservation instincts kicked in, and soon he found himself shooting out through the roof of the house, flying for his after-life with a grumpy hybrid keeping close on his trail.

Youngblood led the girl-spirit on a twisting chase over the outlying neighborhoods, and eventually into the sprawling cityscape that made up the denser populated and commercial areas of the city. Occasionally he managed to lose her by cutting through some office building or another, but she knew the playing field a lot better that he did, and she often managed to catch up to him just as he began to relax and think he'd won.

"Sheesh! It was just a joke!" Youngblood shot back, his voice just barely audible over the roar of the air rushing past him. Danni ignored him, a frown flitting across her face as she suddenly put on a burst of speed, closing the distance rapidly and sending the child-ghost scrambling to make up for the lost distance. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on the perspective) he wasn't fast enough to outrace an annoyed halfa, and soon a black-gloved hand was wrapping around his wrist, jerking his flight to a complete stop. "Uuuh…can we talk about this?"

The girl's only response was a sharp tug, dragging the both of them out of the sky and into a deserted lot somewhere in the district below. Youngblood was deposited unceremoniously on the hard ground, wondering what on earth had he done to evoke such…intensity. It'd just been a prank—he really hadn't expected to be run ragged through the city for it. "Would it help if I said I'm sorry?"

"It isn't so much the wake-up call anymore." The hybrid responded, standing before him, a hand on her hip as she stared down at him, green-eyes narrowed, "The chase was fun in the beginning. However, you couldn't just keep to the outskirts and had to go into the city, flying in broad daylight. I told you before, this isn't like Amity; people don't even know ghosts exist."

"I thought you were gonna kill me," Was his defense, pulling himself to his feet and dusting off his uniform, "Adults can't see me anyway, so the only thing they'd see was you."

At that tidbit of information her stance shifted a little, thinking over the latest development with interest, and losing a bit of the edge in both her body-language and in her expression. "I went invisible during the more heavily populated areas." It was more to herself than to Youngblood, and he felt a sigh of relief escape when she finally shrugged, dropping out of her ghost form and into the significantly less intimidating human form, "No harm done I guess. And it was fun."

Danni laughed to herself, it'd been a while since she'd just been able to cut loose and play like that. Unfortunately, unless she decided to inform a certain thief of her super-natural state, it wasn't likely to happen again. He was a similar distraction, but she had to be careful when chasing him.

"You looked like you were going to have a heart-attack earlier." She remarked to the irate ghost that trudged beside her. After the incident had been resolved Youngblood had told her of his desire to stick around, and Danni had just shrugged and allowed him. At least this way she could make sure he stayed out of trouble. She'd made him promise to walk like a normal person, not entirely trusting his claim of not being seen by adults (who would make up the majority of the population). It was true that none of the pedestrians had paid any mind to the eye-catching billboard that was the ghost's appearance. Honestly, how could anyone not pay attention to the bright green and white police uniform? Not to mention to the sea-green hair.

Either oddly colored kids weren't an issue around this part of town, or Youngblood hadn't been lying when he made the claim. In the end Danni decided it didn't matter.

It was odd to actually have a companion during her weekend walks through the city, so used as she was to being on her own and invisible to the world. Youngblood was always chattering, and it seemed impossible for him to stay still. He never wandered too far from her (Danni's cheerfully delivered threat seemed to have acted as a deterrent) and always appeared to be exclaiming over something or another. He often bothered her to translate something, completely enraptured by the differences and similarities between here and Amity. It was…cute for a lack of another term.

All the other ghosts she'd met were bent on creating chaos or terror, or meant harm to her person, so it was interesting to see a spirit as something more than what many consider a mischief making poltergeist. She could see the boy he had once been shining through the ectoplasm.

She giggled quietly as he attempted to speak with a small girl that had ambushed him, half listening to the rapid fire questions about his outfit and his hair. The utterly lost expression on his face caused much amusement to his companion, but she eventually took pity on him and stepped in, acting as translator between the two groups.

The girl, introduced as Ayumi listened with her head tilted as Danni explained that "Yon-kun" (dubbed so because Ayumi could not say Youngblood's full name) was from America, and spoke English.

"Oh! Conan-kun speaks English." Ayumi nodded in understanding, screwing up her face a little in thought, "It's a confusing language. Anyways, Yon-kun is a police officer?"

"Nah," Danni shot the increasingly annoyed ghost a faint smirk. Apparently he didn't much like being left out of the conversation, especially when he knew he was being spoken about, "Yon-kun just likes to think he is."

"I am right here you know." Youngblood muttered, letting out a faint 'ow' when Danni elbowed him in the side. Ayumi giggled at the interaction, even if she couldn't understand half of it. The girl and the ghost seemed to get along pretty well, even if they couldn't understand each other without Danni's interference. Eventually a woman called for Ayumi, her mother probably, and broke up the little chat on the wonders of police work (apparently the girl was quite experienced in the area and 'Yon-kun' was interested in the subject).

Youngblood crossed his arms and fixed Danni with his grey stare, "You've gotta teach me this language."

"Why?" The hybrid tilted her head, "You're not gonna need it back in the ghost zone."

Youngblood paused at that, the child-ghost biting his lip in thought. She was right about that…but…it didn't matter. He still wanted to learn! This place was so much more interesting than Amity Park or Wisconsin (the only other places where there was a stable ghost portal), much larger, and he was the only ghost around! Well, not counting Danielle…

Speaking of which, she didn't really believe he'd go back to the ghost zone and never come out again, right? Steel-grey eyes shot his companion a side-long glance; taking in the hybrid's human form. Sure he'd pop back in for a while, check up on his crew and then make some arrangements (and have a stern talking-to with his skeleton familiar. He really needed to stop sulking because he wasn't getting any attention) and then he'd be back in a jiffy. He just needed to take…certain precautions.

Youngblood had no doubts as to who would come out victorious if there ever was a true battle between the two—even Danielle's human form was nearly saturated with ectoplasmic energy, although he doubted the girl noticed it herself. Despite his young appearance, Youngblood was quite old for a ghost, and he had a better energy perception than most. Danni had way more power than the other Halfa at any one time; it had even gotten to the point where some of the power would bleed off into the atmosphere. During his time in her presence he'd been discretely watching her energy and how it reacted, attempting to confirm an answer that she'd asked herself when they first met.

Why did the portal keep opening?

There was only one feasible answer the ghost could see, and the root of the answer lay in that well of untapped, and unused energy. The residue left by the excess power seeped into the environment, and found a weak spot in the barriers between the two realms. It had probably originally been a randomly spawned, short-lived portal, but all the excess energy was drawn to the weak point, and through it to the ghost zone, tearing it open again and again.

Of course, this was all speculation. What did he know about portal formation?

"Hey," The spoken word broke Youngblood out of his thoughts, prompting the little ghost to glance over at his companion. Danni had stopped walking, and was eyeing a nearby kid, someone who was tugging insistently at his mother's shirt, insisting that there really _WAS _a little green policeman right over there, "Can you change into something…less conspicuous? Even if the adults can't see you, you're drawing the kid's attention."

Youngblood bristled slightly, a little miffed. He had half a mind to just ignore the question, what say did she have over his wardrobe anyway? Then again, this was her territory…and she did threaten to kick him back into the ghost zone if she felt he was causing trouble. He'd already come close with the frantic race through the city—there was no point in risking his place in the living realm any more. The ghost ended up nodding—reluctantly—and followed her as she led him to a rather empty side-street.

As soon as they were out of sight of the main road and its mixed batch of pedestrians, a faint green shimmer appeared along the ghost's police-esque uniform, and the cloth seemed to lose its definite shape and color. After a split second—so subtle was the actual change that one minute it was a uniform, the next it was not—he was clad in a dark-forest green sweater and knee-length white shorts. It was styled the exact same way as Danni's outfit, the only difference being the coloring, and the green and white base-ball cap that covered most of his sea-green hair. In truth, he was too lazy to think up another outfit, so he'd just copied hers. "Better?"

He was surprised to find a puzzled expression in response to his question—actually; he doubted she'd even been paying attention to him at all, "Danni?"

"Can all ghosts do that?" She said after a moment or two of continued silence, "I mean, alter their appearance at will?"

Youngblood stared at her. How could a spirit not know about their own abilities? Maybe it had something to do with her status as a hybrid. He knew that all naturally born ghosts knew most of their basic abilities from instinct, and control over their appearance was one of those basics for a humanoid ghost. He shook his head to clear the thoughts, intending to answer her question, "There are limits of course, but a ghost's form is dictated by their energy. Most can change clothes and stuff really easily; it's just twisting energy and shaping it into something else. Fundamentals like hair and eye and skin coloring can't change, unless that ghost happens to be a shape-shifting type." He studied the thoughtful look that settled over the hybrid, eyes widening a little, disbelief clear, "…You really didn't know, did you?"

Danielle shook her head.

"…How much do you know?"

"Very little. I can't really experiment without—" She cut herself off, "Never mind. Anyways, some high schools are putting on free fair today, wanna go?"

The blatant change to the subject only piqued Youngblood's curiosity, but the idea of a fair held more appeal to the fun-loving ghost than standing around in a dirty side-street and talking. His reaction to the suggestion was a wild nod, latching onto her hand and dragging her back into the main-stream of people despite the fact that he didn't know where he was going. It would be at least a mile before Danni managed to inform him that the hosting school was in the _other_ direction.

--

"Kaito? KAITO!" The yelled words, drifting above the mutterings and talking of the crowd below, took their time reaching the ears of their target. The teenager stirred at the interruption and stretched, the warm metal beneath him turning out to be a remarkably comfortable place to cat-nap. Of course, certain friends of his seemed to think that napping was not perfectly acceptable, hence the constant repetitions of his name.

"What is it, Aoko?" He responded, just loud enough to be heard over the ambient back-ground noise. He rolled over, opening one sleepy blue eye to peer down off the roof of the stall and lock gazes with the annoyed girl below him. Her agitation was obvious, and would have been visible to even the most unobservant person and it didn't take long from Kaito to come up with a theory as to why—probably because he was the only one out of their class that wasn't working on anything. Aoko had been placed in charge of the festival committee, and she was pretty much cracking down on slackers.

"You told me you would help out, and here I find you napping." She accused, placing her hands on her hips, her whole body settling into a stance that told him immediately that he wouldn't be able to weasel his way out of this one. The magician sighed, pulling himself into a seated position, Indian style, "Just 'cause I'm not helping now doesn't mean I won't. This roof is just rather comfortable."

And it was. The sun was warming the metal, but it wasn't too hot, instead it was just pleasant warmth that seemed to invite drowsiness.

"That's another thing—you shouldn't be up there! What'll the kids think?"

"I think they believe it is rather cool." Kaito grinned and waved at a small cluster of children, who waved back cheerily before dissolving into laughter. He watched as Aoko's disposition seemed to steadily degenerate, and he definitely recognized that look on her face—she'd be channeling her father soon enough if he didn't stop teasing her. "When I find something to help with, I will, okay? I just haven't found anything interesting—you don't want me to be bored, do you?"

She had to reluctantly agree—a bored Kaito would do far more harm than good. She also knew that whoever was assigned to work with the bored magician would likely commit mutiny and try and escape, losing even more of the festival staff. "Fine. But you better find something soon." Before she melted back into the crowd, she shot him a withering look, "No more sleeping."

"Aye Inspector." Kaito joked to himself as she stomped off, reminding him so much of her father after he'd been outwitted by Kid. The two were remarkably similar at times, and both were just as fun to tease. The magician stretched his arms, looking out over the small-ish fair that had been set up in his school's courtyard. It was catered more toward the elementary and middle-school level kids, and thus the majority of the guests belonged in those categories, "Let's see…Cotton Candy?" There was quite a crowd in front of the pink and blue decorated stall, and a crowd always meant an audience. It was a possibility—the only problem was that he couldn't stand the stuff.

"Okaaay…not that one then." The mere thought of the cloud of pure sugar sent his stomach into cart-wheels, so he forcibly changed targets, searching out a more appealing snack stand. Of course he could try working with one of the game booths, but he preferred being able to sneak a snack every now and then as a salary of sorts. He was getting a little hungry from all the smells that were rising up from below.

A funnel cake stand was the main source of the scents, located not far from his current perch. His stomach grumbled faintly in protest, the smell of the baked goodie at least ten times more inviting now that he was actually paying attention to it. Unfortunately he was banned from anything that required an oven, a fact that Kaito mournfully regretted at the moment, since it barred him from sneaking himself a couple or the delicious cakes.

He forced his attention away from the tantalizing aroma, eyes zeroing in on the only other stall in his immediate line of sight (not counting the game and other booths set up). Ice cream would work. He was rather fond of the frozen treat, and it would be a nice contrast to the warmth he'd been indulging in. Also it might get his mind off the insistent funnel cakes—the near constant crowd would also prove to be a pleasant diversion as well.

Mind made up, Kaito hopped down off of the roof, the action drawing some startled squawks from the patrons at the game. He just gave a small smile and a wave to the students running the contest, receiving exasperated sighs and rolled eyes for his efforts. Satisfied that he'd caused some slight measure of chaos (even if it was only in the lives of one small family) he sauntered off down the lane, grin growing at the dismay he saw in the students working the ice-cream stall when he leaned against the wooden counter, completely at ease. They were close enough, and had surely heard the nearly-yelled part of his and Aoko's earlier conversation so they knew what his coming signified.

"We've got enough help." One of the uniformed workers informed him warily, handing a woman her ordered scoop of ice-cream, nearly spilling it on her since his attention was on the marauding magician. Kaito merely shrugged, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a dove, letting it perch on his finger as he petted its head, the act gaining a few delighted 'oo's from the children waiting in line, and even a few interested looks from the parents.

"Just give me a uniform and let me play advertisement. Aoko told me to help, but we all know I'd get bored working behind the counter. This way, I keep occupied, and you get more business, kay?"

He watched the decision-making process occur in the student's face, and after a second he knew what the answer would be. He'd been pretty sure he wouldn't be turned down in the first place, there was a contest going on between the kids working the stands so any way of gathering more customers would be foolish to turn down. Plus everyone in his class, nah, even the school, knew that attracting attention was one of Kaito's fortes.

"…fine."

When Aoko came around to make sure he'd followed her order she just stared and shook her head, muttering something about how Kaito would always be Kaito. Truthfully she should have expected it—he was a performer after all.

The magician was camped out right next to the ice-cream stall, an apron advertising the stand covering his school uniform, putting on a small show for those waiting in line, and for the growing crowd of interested passer-bys that stopped to see what all of the commotion was. She could only hope that he didn't go too far with his tricks, and kept the birds in line. It wouldn't do to have people complaining about mysteriously appearing white droppings.

--

Danni lagged behind as they walked, hands buried nonchalantly in the pockets of her sweater. Despite the crowd around she had little difficulty keeping an eye on the inquisitive ghost ahead of her. Just as she'd suspected, the boy was enjoying himself immensely, even if he couldn't take part in most of the activities himself. It wasn't even the language barrier that stopped him—she was sure he'd find some way around it if that were the issue—but it was difficult to participate when he was invisible to those running the games and stands. Apparently high-school students were too old to be considered kids, although he did explain that they could see him if they were acting of feeling particularly immature. Unfortunately the students here were trying to act more like adults, what with running the place and all.

That little fact did nothing to deter Youngblood's near obsessive desire to see every single part of the fair, from the entrance to the last game stall he had to see it all, drinking in the sights with those lively pale-grey eyes of his. Danni toyed with the idea that he'd never been to any type of fair before—something which would make sense considering most ghosts stayed trapped in the ghost zone up until a couple years ago when the Fentons opened the portal—and she didn't really blame him. She'd never actually been to one either so the entire experience was something new for the hybrid.

"Cool!" The yelled exclamation caught Danni's attention, tilting her head as the ghost ahead of her suddenly changed direction, bounding through the crowd in pursuit of whatever had caught his attention. She altered her own course accordingly, finding a way to squeeze through the tightly packed wall of people that Youngblood had apparently phased right through, and ended up near the front of the crowd, coming up beside her green-colored comrade.

There was a single person standing within the cleared space between the crowd and the row of stands. It took Danni a few moments to figure out what was going on, the answer finally clicking when the performing teenager caused a couple doves to appear out of thin air, eliciting delighted shrieks from the younger part of the crowd, an especially loud pair of girls were located slightly behind and to the side of Danni, leaving her ears ringing for a good few seconds afterwards.

"It's a magician!" Youngblood clapped his hands together as he watched the act, which soon moved on from the birds to other various disciplines that Danni figured were part and parcel of a magic show. As with the fair, she'd never truly seen a magic show before, and her rudimentary knowledge of it was mostly through hear-say and the knowledge Vlad had pretty much downloaded into her brain before he realized she was defective. She shook her head vaguely, avoiding the depressing train of thought and focusing on the show before her, "—havn't seen one of these in soo long! This kid's pretty good—"

Danni had to admit that he was. She could not figure out where he'd pulled that scarf from. He seemed rather experienced, his movements easy and fluid as he went through the motions—even she could tell that this guy was no amateur. Eventually she gave up trying to unravel the tricks, and just let herself get carried away by the performance along with her companion. Youngblood seemed quite willing to just stay and watch, a huge change to the constantly moving ghost earlier—judging by the small gasps of delight that escaped him every once in a while he was enjoying the show as well.

Time passed, and the crowd around them shifted. People came, others left, and the line for the ice-cream stall directly to the left of the magician grew and shrank with the crowd. Youngblood still showed no desire to leave, even after the magician began to repeat a few tricks. Instead he just watched and talked, going through a narrative about a magic-using ghost he'd met once, and about all of his different tricks.

"Ghost magic can create a lot more elaborate tricks, cause it's real. But, the cool thing about human magic shows is that they don't have any kind of power to help them along."

Danielle had to agree with the statement. After all, it would be easy for her to make a dove disappear, all she'd have to do was touch it and concentrate a little. But the human didn't have her innate invisibility ability and she could only guess how he was pulling off the feat.

When the tricks began to become more repetitive (Danni was pretty sure that she and Youngblood were the only ones who would notice, seeing as they'd been there for a while) the hybrid turned her attention from the magic to the one performing it, noticing for the first time how into it he seemed. Her eyes traveled from his hands to his face, blue eyes lingering as she saw the young-man behind the tricks for the first real time. She frowned slightly, studying his face; something was nagging at the back of her mind. Something…familiar.

The first person she thought of was Saito, the news-paper delivery-boy always smiled and bid her a good-morning when they met and she held a slight fondness for the teenager. She'd started helping him on Friday mornings, delivering the papers so he could get to school early for an exam-prep study group. She didn't know what it was exactly, but she didn't really care, the route gave her something to do, and generated a bit of money in her pocket since he always gave her a good part of his wages for the day.

But no, this person wasn't Saito. There were similarities in the body-type and height, but everything else just…wasn't. The nagging was still there, it was his face that caught her the most, she just couldn't place it…

"You've been here for a while, little ones."

His voice too, she suddenly realized, taking an involuntary step back when she realized that he'd crossed the empty space and knelt down in front of them, bringing him down to her eye-level. There were mutterings from the crowd behind and around them, even a few disappointed complaints from the other kids that they hadn't been the ones to be spoken too. Danni glanced to her right and saw a shocked deer-in-the-headlights look on Youngblood's face, and it was because of his reaction that she realized what the rest of the people found so odd.

The magician was speaking in English. And he was talking to the both of them. Half of the crowd could not see Youngblood.

"Here." He continued without missing a beat, apparently unperturbed about the predicament he'd placed the two in, making a precise motion with his wrist and pulling a blue silk flower from behind Danni's ear and placing it in her hair, "A cute flower for a cute little kitten. And…"

For a second she blotted out everything, only hearing his voice utter that nickname. It clicked, calling up a memory from the not too distant past, and suddenly she knew what the nagging familiar feeling had been trying to tell her.

This was the boy she'd run from almost two months ago, the one who'd found her when she'd first arrived in the city, tired, confused, and starving. A faint blush spread across her face as she remembered how she'd treated him, caught up as she was in her paranoia. She'd had some time to settle down since then, and she was, frankly, ashamed of how she'd treated his concern. She didn't doubt he recognized her, not after the deliberate use of the nickname, but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to face him. As soon as he'd stopped focusing on them she'd whirled around, plunging through the confused crowd without so much of a warning to her companion. It was too much.

"Danni! Danni! Danielle!"

Youngblood was calling after her almost immediately after he realized she'd left, following her and quickly overtaking her. She was slowed by needing to navigate the dwindling evening crowds, where Youngblood merely moved directly through it. He caught up with her, grabbing onto her arm in an attempt to slow her enough to speak, "What just happe—"

"The portal will be opening soon. You know where it is, I'm sure you can get home yourself."

The words came out in a rush, and she didn't look back at him. If she had, she would have seen the hurt expression that crossed the boy-ghost's face. If she had, she might have stopped to think for a moment.

But she didn't, and with a thought her arm slid through Youngblood's grip, and she disappeared into the crowd. She wasn't quite sure where she was going, but she needed to sit down, to find a place to think. Her mind was a maelstrom of emotions, shame, guilt, and old fear that bubbled up to the surface. Accessing the memory had brought with it many of the emotions that had assaulted her at the time and she needed to deal with them. Alone.

--

Youngblood just stood there in the midst of a crowd, one hand still clutching air, the other curled around the wooden dove the magician had handed him. Slowly he drew his hands back, placing both into the pocket of his green sweater as he gazed thoughtfully at the point where Danni had disappeared behind a set of stalls, where he was certain she'd shifted, and then took off into the sky again.

There was a strange feeling running through him as he thought about the girl, about the near panicked look he'd seen on her face before she'd bolted, about the fear he could feel radiating of in waves.

"What are you running from?" He muttered to himself, head down he rose into the air, ignoring the startled exclamations of a few kids who managed to spot him before he set his course back towards the park where he'd first come into this city. He couldn't place it, this feeling, but all he knew was that it ha something to do with the hybrid he'd spent so much time with other the past day.

He met up with his familiar in the clearing in which the portal would appear in a few hours, the skeletal dog delighted to find Youngblood away from the halfa. The kid-ghost knew the skeleton held a grudge against the other halfa, and it transferred over to Danielle. He shook his head, not really paying attention as Skelo-pup berated him for running all over the town with a 'halfa-brat' and 'what did you do with your clothes?!'

Youngblood stuffed his hands deeper into the pocket of the sweater, curling his hand tighter around the wooden figurine that was one of his only souvenir from the day, a really fun day that ended abruptly and bizarrely.

When it became clear that Youngblood wasn't going to respond the dog finally gave up, curled up beneath a tree mumbling to himself. Youngblood glanced at the sky; it was a pretty orangey color that heralded the coming of night, and he could feel the energy gathering—it wouldn't be long now.

Part of him didn't want to go back just yet, he wanted to fly off and hunt down the hybrid, make sure that she was okay, and then pry the reason for the panic attack out of her. That part was overruled however, because of the deal he'd made. With the way she had been when he'd last seen her; he knew that she was in no condition for any type of battle. He needed to go back and set up the defense—the least he could do was make sure there weren't any ghostly intruders heaped on top of all of that emotional build-up.

Emotions were a strange thing, he decided, just as the glowing green portal swirled to life in the grass before him, only visible to those who knew where to look. The ghost nudged his skeleton familiar with his foot, rousing him before turning back to the portal.

He was going back, but that didn't mean he wouldn't come back later.

--

Sorry for the wait. Graduation, retirement….stuff happened. I'll also be going on vacation until July in a few days, so I don't think updates will be regular for a while. I'll try to work on it while I'm gone, but no promises. I tried to make this one longer than usual, passing the 5.5k mark, in an attempt to make up for the wait both before and after.

Lesse, notes about this chapter. Um…I'm rather fond of my characterization of Youngblood .-. He's a bit more mature when he wants to be, and most importantly, not evil. Youngblood always seemed to be playing around anyway.

…Just from the way this chapter wrote itself, there is definite possible future Youngblood/Danni, even if it was just one sided. Not sure yet.

Hope ya'll enjoyed it, and congrats to those who guessed that it was indeed Kaito who would see him. I rather enjoyed this chapter, maybe cause I took my time to write it instead of doing it all at once.

Anyways, uh next time: Danni does some thinking, and finally returns to the neighborhood where she'd first seen the magician. Meanwhile, despite Yon-kun's promise, something does slip through the portal, and this one ain't friendly.

Review

TBC


	13. Chapter 13 Predictions I

Prediction Part I

For some reason Danni wasn't surprised to find herself once again overlooking the set of vaguely familiar roof-tops. She'd always avoided this particular neighborhood, even after the mixed up details of the encounter faded back into dormant memory. It was surprisingly crime-free, as was much of the Ekoda district unlike its neighbor, Beika. The most she'd caught in this area were petty thefts and the occasional mugging. Of course, just because she didn't see it, didn't mean it didn't happen. Even the quietest of places usually hid some skeleton.

It wasn't necessarily the neighborhood that rejected her, it was merely one house, and the young-man who lived there. Seeing that very same teenager led her to come back, in her ghost form, and settle in a tree in the back yard. She had her back to the trunk, a blue silk rose in her hands as green eyes watched the lighted windows. At one point her eyes flicked to the sky, taking in the rising moon, and her thoughts briefly traveled to the companion she'd left behind before she was swallowed by the feelings she was trying to sort out.

Fear; that was an easy one. The memory of Vlad's pursuit on her tail, suddenly waking up in new surroundings, and being confronted by a stranger were all perfectly valid reasons for her mistrust. However, looking back she couldn't quite believe that it had stuck, even after he'd done nothing to prove her mistrust—he even let her go without any fuss.

In some small way she'd been afraid of what he could do, and even if he were a normal human, and she a half-ghost. He'd even alluded to it himself, the one thing that would have ruined all of her plans. She could see it clearly now, the casual mention of calling the police had been what had escalated her already sizable paranoia beyond manageable levels, and nearly led her to bite the hand that had both fed and rescued her (even if she could remember nothing but feeling completely sated after waking up).

So far, only this magician knew her status as a runaway. The few people she talked to, Saito, a few kids at the park, some of the older ladies on the paper-route, all believed her to be a kid from a rather low economical standing (the conclusion probably based on her one pair of clothing and their worn appearance) but a nice enough girl. None of them had any reason to check with the authorities, no reason to dig up the Missing Person report for Danielle Masters, and no reason to jeopardize her coveted position here in Tokyo, a place she almost couldn't imagine leaving.

The kid living in the house before her could do all that if he wanted to.

She hated that, hated that she had no control over this situation. Freed from the judgment clouding haze she'd dealt with two months ago she could see that her leaving hadn't done anything to stop that possibility—indeed she could have done more harm than good, making him more suspicious of her sudden flight. It probably would have been better to offer some half-baked explanation, maybe even promise to go home, if anything to offer the boy some closure so he could close the case in his mind forever.

Maybe she still should, obviously she was remembered if the earlier incident was anything to go by. She'd seen the recognition in his eyes when they'd met at the fair, as shocked as she was by him nearly quoting a statement he'd said to her all those weeks ago. He hadn't looked upset at all really, one of the things that had thrown her off kilter along with the sudden, forceful flashback to a time where she was mostly ruled by fear and a drive to survive. He'd seemed…pleased if anything.

Danni shook her head, unconsciously playing with the silken petals of the blue rose, this attempt to sort out her thoughts only led to more puzzles, more questions, and a choice.

As if to make matters worse, a soft blue haze drifted out on an exasperated sigh.

--

Youngblood wasn't happy when he returned to his home-port. He'd left on a quick reconnaissance mission deeper into the ghost zone. He wasn't quite sure what he had been looking for, information of course, but he just kinda floated around the nearby area, keeping his ears open for any interesting tidbits that came his way.

His sour mood wasn't based on any lack of success in his mission, no he'd learned something quite interesting, and a bit alarming. Most ghosts highly disliked the main-do-gooder halfa Danny Phantom, but all of them were afraid of the original, Vlad Plasmius. The crazed-genius-billionaire/evil-tyrant-to-be had recently mobilized a small force of his stupid, but formidable ghost animals. Apparently they were searching for something, doing a rather well organized sweep of the ghost zone. His contact hadn't known what they were looking for; just that one was heading in his direction.

The strange purple cloaked ghost had looked straight at Youngblood then, red eyes glowing in the depths of his hood when he uttered the last words, the very warning that had sent him racing back to his lair at top speed despite the constant squawking of his skeleton familiar (It'd shifted back to a parrot, just for easier movement and portability).

'_Every ghost who has something to protect needs to guard it fiercely, or they will find it stolen away'_

Obviously he'd demanded the ghost to explain, but the cloaked one had vanished in a wink of an eye, leaving the boy-spirit floating in an endless abyss of purple sky, green clouds, and floating doors. But then he'd thought about it for a moment, realizing the implication, and had rushed straight back, only to find that he was just a bit too late.

Youngblood landed on the small floating island that he'd claimed as his home territory, the tropical foliage and white sands stretching to where his pirate ship was docked on an invisible ocean, only to find the once ordered place filled with chaos. His crew was tossed all over the beach and wood, some in pieces, others more whole. None of them were in critical danger, since the majority were skeleton ghosts (skeleton crew, get it?) and would rearrange themselves given enough time. The real problem was the story he'd received from one of the more intact members.

"We was just standing guard like you told us, boss" The limbless skeleton rattled from where he'd been tossed on the sand, "We didn't let none 'o them small fry through—a bunch tried! They could probably feel the energy from the portal—"

An annoyed cough from the captain in plain-clothes had the ghost back-pedaling, returning the narrative from the tangent it had been in danger of traveling down. As any good captain (and Youngblood was a pirate ghost through and through, no matter how many times he changed roles or clothes) he knew his crew pretty well, and he knew how much pirates loved to embellish tales. He had to really keep after them if he wanted anything to get straight to the point.

"Anyways. We was just doin' our jobs when somethin' just dropped right out 'o the sky on top of us. I didn't get much of a look at it meself, I just heard the most bone-rattling growl I'd ever heard before I soon found my arms thrown into the woods somewhere, and I was tossed here on the beach. I don't know what happened to me legs—"

"Get on with it!"

"Right, right. After I lost me legs I happened to look back thisaway, and I saw the tail end of the beastie (it had to be some sorta ghost-beastie, no livin beastie could do this kinda damage) disappear through that portal you were so set on guarding."

The bony jaw opened to continue, but stopped when he realized he no longer had his audience. Sputtering in indignation the little skeleton parrot was righting himself from where he'd been tossed into the sand when Youngblood had suddenly moved and took off. The dismembered skeleton tried to crane his neck, "Where'd the Cap'n go?"

"Probably off to the brat again." The parrot mumbled, spitting out grains of sand and trying to dislodge some of the more persistent ones that had gotten caught in the grooves in his bones. The crew-member just stared at him for a second, "What brat? The Cap'n?"

"No you twit!"

--

"Mom! I'm going to go take the trash out!" Kaito called back over his shoulder, a smallish black bag swinging in his hand as he pushed open the door. He half heard the response, yelled from the kitchen (which was practically on the other side of the house) and figured by the lack of clamoring and scrambling she didn't have anything that needed to be set out. Normally he would have put it out earlier, but since he'd returned home late today (Aoko had forced him, under threat of fish, to help clean up the courtyard after the fair had officially closed. He figured she hadn't counted his advertising as 'real work' and was slightly annoyed at that. Entertaining was difficult labor!) so now was the first time he'd gotten around to doing it.

The small black bag was soon tossed into a larger counter-part, as were a few others that lay scattered near the door leading to the garage. All collected into one large bag he tied it up quickly, and tightly. He'd had issues with loosely tied bags before, and they had not ended well for the teenager.

It was quite dark out by the time he actually made it out to the street, the pavement lit vaguely by both the moon and the dimmed streetlights. It was just bright enough to be able to see anything directly in his way, but soft enough so as not to disturb the sleeping neighborhood. He'd never had a problem with them before, but apparently people had complained until they were put in (It got preeetty dark at times) and then complained after they were set up because they were too bright, hence the dim state.

Kaito stood up straight and stretched, an easy smile setting onto his features as he heard the satisfying sound of joints popping into place and the relief that settled into the relaxing muscles in his back. It was a quiet night, and there was a soft breeze that played with his hair and whistled quietly in his ears. In the distance he could hear the ever constant sound of the city's bustle, but even it was slowing down as time crawled on.

Eventually another sound entered into the picture, one that he almost missed as he turned to head back inside. There was a faint growling echoing from the little alleyway between his house and the next, the little corridor thrown into shadow because of the placement of the lights. His first thought was it was just the neighbor's dog from behind the yard fence (which made up a part of the alley wall) but discarded that theory when he remembered that the dog was on the other side of the house. Although, the answer was likely some sort of stray dog, given that cats weren't usually as noisy and they didn't really have any other larger animals this close to the city.

More curious than frightened Kaito edged closer; even though he knew that wild or stray animals could be pretty dangerous at times, especially when they were growling. Speaking of which, the growling had died away, and some scuffles broke out, informing him that there was more than one thing in that alleyway. He reached the edge of the sidewalk when a blinding green light flashed out of nowhere, causing a searing pain to eyes that had grown accustomed to a much tamer brightness. There was a high-pitched whine, and a thud as of a large object hitting the wall of the neighboring house. It was at this point that Kaito managed to open his eyes again, although he could still see after-images of the bright flash floating around the surroundings. Whatever had been causing the ruckus seemed to have split during the flash bomb (it was the only thing he could think that it could have been.) since the long corridor seemed empty from his standpoint.

He could hear the slamming of the neighbor's door as he came out to investigate, but rather than go out to meet the irate man Kaito moved in closer, a faint glimmer of green shining near the wall of the house next to his. The magician knelt down next to it, aware of the light as his neighbor's flashlight flooded the scene.

"Kuroba! What is going on out here!?"

"Wasn't me this time, Yamamoto-san." The teenager responded distractedly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small glass bottle that he used for a couple of his tricks, using it to scoop up some of the steadily vanishing green goop that was splattered and pooling around the section of the wall directly in front of him. "I'd suggest you call the police, even if it is just to report the vandalism."

Upon seeing the goop Kaito was referring to, Yamamoto flew into a rage, ranting about out of control teenagers, and how he'd see the perpetrators brought to justice one way or another. Kaito shook his head as the flashlight faded; at least the man wouldn't turn his rage on him. Even though he had a reputation of pulling pranks and causing chaos, every person in the neighborhood knew that when Kaito was responsible, he took credit for it. After all, what was the point of creating a masterpiece (as he considered most of his performances) if the audience didn't know who was behind it? At any rate, his habit of either signing or confessing his own pranks eventually led the neighborhood to trust his word when he said that he didn't do something, even if the situation looked pretty questionable (such as his current proximity to the scene of the crime).

The teenager rose to his feet, swirling the green liquid in the bottle in front of his eyes. The stain on the wall and floor was still steadily vanishing, a feat that left Kaito mildly perplexed and somewhat surprised. It wasn't necessarily dissolving, nor could he place a term as to what the substance was actually doing. The best he could describe was that one minute it was there, and then the next it flickered out of existence. The stuff he'd bottled seemed to be an exception to the disappearing act, leading Kaito to the conclusion that the open air might be a reason for the reaction.

The light thrown from the goop shown faintly against his skin as he studied it, the unique shade of green reminding him of something. He couldn't quite place it, and eventually slipped the bottle into his pocket for later study. He could hear Nakamori's voice even from down the block—it would make sense that Yamamoto would call the local police man first before submitting a formal call—and he knew that removing evidence would not make his situation look much better in the eyes of the Inspector (who, incidentally, didn't seem to get the whole trust-worthy memo when it came to Kaito's pranks). The magician pulled himself away from the scene of the incident, noting that almost all of the goop was gone now, leaving behind a faintly luminescent stain on the white siding along with a small puddle that was hanging on to the seam between the wall and the ground. He needed to make himself just a little bit less suspicious.

Looking onto the entire alley from the entrance, Kaito spotted something that he'd missed before. Located a couple inches from his house were two, much smaller puddles of green goop, set a little apart from each other and with slight imprints in the thick liquid. _Footprints? _He guessed, unable to really check due to them being back inside the alley and him being at the entrance. They seemed a little small to be a full-grown man or even a woman. A child? But then…what would a child be doing fighting with some kind of dog?

As he waited for the Inspector to show he thought back to the bottle in his pants pocket, just what kind of animal left that stain there anyway? A radioactive dog?

--

Youngblood was going crazy by the time he'd scoured all the places he figured the girl-hybrid would be, and found nothing for his efforts. The strange ghost's warning whispered through his head, along with his crew's admittance that something strong enough to over-power his entire pirate crew had made its way into the living realm. Oh, he knew that Danielle had more than enough power to take care of such a monster on a good day (or so he hoped) but given that most ghost's powers were tied to their emotional state, he was worried about her.

After he'd exhausted all of the places he knew to look (including the house he'd found her in, the park, and a few of the spots she'd shown him during the small tour earlier) he only had one option left. The child-ghost calmed his worry, closed his eyes, and searched the immediate area for any kind of spectral energy; a fight would have thrown off a ton of it. Now, if he'd been in Amity Park, or anywhere with regular, large-scale ghost activity, this technique would not work very well since the entire area would be saturated with ectoplasm. Luckily, Tokyo was neither of those two places, and all he had to do was ignore the faint imprint of Danni's energy that seemed to mark what she considered her territory. A huge concentration stood out like a sore thumb, and gave Youngblood a general area to look.

Steel grey eyes hardened and the ghost shot through the sky, passing over residential areas in the direction he'd sensed the build-up. Based on the amount of energy spent, the opponent had been rather strong, a fact that sent what served as Youngblood's heart beating unsteadily as he thought about the halfa in a fight. He knew he shouldn't be worried, if she was anything like the annoyance she resembled, she should have been able to take care of herself alright. However, one of the things Youngblood had learned during their acquaintance was that, despite her name and looks,_ Danni_ Phantom was not _Danny_ Phantom, which did nothing to calm his worries.

Eventually the pirate ghost reached the epicenter of the build-up, finding a lively scene that included a couple humans clustered in front of a small path running between two houses, discussing the implication of the pool of ectoplasm that was slowly fading away, unable to keep together without the spirit it had been attached to. He frowned, seeing no sign of the girl he was looking for, the feel of the largest pool not matching her signature. He rose in the air a bit, circling the area looking for anything else out of place, _anything _to give him a direction now that this lead had turned out to be a dead end as far as it came to locating Danielle. He had no doubt that the confrontation had taken place here, and he could only assume that she'd been taken by surprise cause there was no way she'd willingly fight so close to so many humans, not with how paranoid she'd been about them being seen while flying over the city.

If he'd had any blood running through his body, Youngblood was sure he'd be bleeding with his nervous habit of chewing on his lip, the slight pain from the action keeping him from panicking as the situation seemed to become even more hopeless. If he wanted to figure this out, he needed to remain calm; just where would he go if he'd just gotten into a fight, was possibly wounded, and wanted to avoid outside detection?

_Home._ Was his first thought, but he quickly put that aside due to having already checked there. What if she couldn't get home for whatever reason?

_Probably somewhere nearby, out of sight._ The best way to do that would be to hide out in one of the neighboring yards; her ghostly nature would allow her to avoid the search if the investigation spread further from the alley. Finally with a goal in mind, the ghost began a search of his own.

Much to his delight, it only took one quick scan of the neighborhood to narrow down the location, leading that very same phantom heart to quicken a pace in anticipation. His worries all came to the fore-front as he observed the faint, unmoving glow that was hiding in one of the leafy trees. It was only due to his high vantage, along with his knowledge of ghostly auras that he noticed the sign, and was sure that nothing looking from the ground would see it. Slowly, he lowered himself, floating closer to the hiding spot, invisible just in case he was wrong, and it was the beastie hiding there.

"Get out of here, ghost." Came the growled warning, which was immediately recognized and relief washed over him. Youngblood immediately dropped the invisibility, diving through the covering as relief washed over him, she was okay! The cloaked ghost was wrong!

"Danni! You're alright! Whathappened?Areyouhurt?Whyareyoustillhere?"

"Youngblood?" She managed to cut through the jabbering questions, bringing the overly excited ghost to a halt. Taking a good look at her face, the boy-ghost realized that she looked exhausted, her eyes seemed dimmer, and in her face was a paleness that wasn't there before "What are you doing here?"

"Whatever came through completely decimated my crew! You shoulda seen it, bones EVERYWHERE! And well, I learned it came through here, so I got worried, and—"

"Shush." Danni put a gloved finger to his lips, drawing in her aura even tighter as voices grew closer, the police officer that showed up to the scene deciding the check the yards for clues. Youngblood followed suit, shifting into invisibility even as he wondered why she didn't. She just stayed there, huddled against the tree trunk, aura dimmed to almost nonexistent as she made herself seem smaller, more likely to be overlooked.

The officer moved across the lawn, the flashlight easily showing his line of sight as he made a point to check every possible hiding spot, every bush or tree. Soon he reached the base of their tree, and checked around the trunk. Youngblood knew what would happen next, and he looked to Danni expectantly, sure she would flicker out of sight at any minute now. To his confusion, she didn't, merely curled herself up tighter within the frail curtain of shadows that was her only defense.

When the officer glanced overhead, beginning to move the flashlight to check in the branches, Youngblood decided enough was enough. His hand shot out, wrapping around her wrist, and before those green-eyes could widen in surprise her shadowed form vanished, leaving nothing out of the ordinary for the searching eyes. Minutes passed, and soon the man left the yard to search one of the other, and only then did Youngblood release his hold on the hybrid, letting them both flicker back into view, "What was up with that?" He hissed to her, settling on the branch in front of her, his almost non-existent weight adding nothing to the strain on the wood, "Do you want to be caught? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of hiding? Why didn't you just—"

"I can't!" She growled back, aura flaring as her anger drew on some of her power. The anger soon turned to panic as her very structure wavered, feet nearly dissolving into the very same ectoplasm he'd seen decorating the alley way. She quickly clamped back down on both her emotions and her aura, and a droplet of the glowing liquid fell off the branch to be lost in the grass below before she was able to reabsorb it all. Youngblood was speechless, only snapped out of his trance when she snapped a quick, "Understand now?"

He shook his head before standing up, grey eyes locking with green, a determined gleam in his eye, "I'm going to get you out of here," He began, silencing any growing protest before they could even pass her lips, pulling on every skill in intimidation, and leadership that he'd picked up during his tenure as a pirate captain, "back to your house, and then you are going to tell me what happened."

She opened her mouth to respond, but shut it with a glare when he suddenly picked her up, somehow managing to hold her despite his smaller size. The green-haired ghost shook his head, muttering a 'not now' before kicking into the sky, passing through the canopy of leaves leaving nary a quiver behind in passing.

A/N: Okay, okay, so it didn't take me as long this time. I've had some time to type at my Grandma's, but I haven't been able to get on the Internet too much. Regardless, here's a chapter for you guys. I am so loving the Danni and Youngblood interaction. Yon'kun might be getting attached a bit fast, but ghosts are obsessive by nature .-. The way I see it once Youngblood decides on something he throws his all into it. If he'd trying to take over the town, he's gonna put his all into it. If he wants to have fun, he'd gonna do everything he can to have fun. If he decides a certain girl-halfa is gonna be his friend…well, I think you get the idea.

Cookies to the person who guesses who the cloaked ghost was :p

Anyways, Vlad's moving finally, and though the first scout has been defeated, who knows when another'll come along?

I'm thinking of having Conan come clean to Danny soon…cause of a certain…discovery…from Ai.

Which reminds me, I need to go back to Ai, don't I? Maybe in the next chappie.

Next time: Some secrets are shared, and Danni learns that Vlad was behind the ghost-beastie. Confused, utterly terrified, Danni decides she's no longer safe in Tokyo—Can Youngblood convince her otherwise?

Review!

TBC in Predictions, part II


	14. Chapter 14 Predictions II

Chapter 14 – Predictions Pt II

Youngblood stared down at the girl in his arms, letting himself fly by autopilot through the starry sky toward her home. Danni was curled in on herself, eyes tightly shut, and all her energy focused inward. He didn't need an explanation to guess that she was using her power to try and hold herself together, judging by the way her body had wavered when she'd lost control back there, but for the life of him he could not understand _why_.

There was no way her form should be so…unstable. There hadn't been enough energy scattered around the battle-site to accommodate for this kind of degeneration. He'd only seen it happen when a ghost was pushed past its limits, all excess power spent so it started to draw on the ectoplasm holding it together. But…it didn't make sense. He could sense a good amount of power still within her. There was more than enough to safely maintain a ghost of her size. Plenty more. The only thing he could think was that the power was blocked off somehow.

He couldn't help but sigh as he looked down at the ground, taking a moment to orient himself and then figure out the length of time before he would reach the large house that Danni took residence in. It wasn't far now, not at the speed he was traveling. That was good; it meant he wouldn't need to wait long for the explanation.

There was the house, rising up against the back-drop of night sky as Youngblood changed his angle of flight, barely skimming the roof before diving in. He shifted both himself and Danni out of the corporal realm, sliding easily through the layer of shingles, insulation, and wood. He touched down on the floor, his hands tightening momentarily on his passenger as they both solidified again, before laying the girl halfa down on the arm-chair he'd found her asleep on in the morning.

As her white hairs settled against the dark fabric, Youngblood had to ask, "Why didn't you switch back?"

"First thing I tried." Danni muttered, but the miniscule lapse in her concentration caused her form to waver again. She sucked in a breath and it stabilized again.

Youngblood frowned at that. It didn't seem like it was only the lack of energy that was causing the problem. A faint idea formed in the back of his mind, and after a second of thought he figured that trying it out wouldn't hurt. The little ghost hopped up onto the arm of the chair, reaching down to grab Danni's hand in his own.

He focused on the surprisingly warm touch, searching for his own energy and coaxing some through the physical contact they shared. Only a little at a time—too much and her body would try and fight the foreign signature of it. Ectoplasm was like blood—much like a human transfusion, and transferring ectoplasm was sometimes used to help heal an injured ghost. Of course, most ghosts didn't like each other enough to care about such things, and Youngblood had only heard of the technique in passing. He'd never imagined he'd be using it to keep someone alive, much less a hybrid.

And yet, here he was, giving up his own power to keep someone else alive. It wasn't difficult; it was just manipulation of energy, like how he'd changed his clothes earlier. The only difference was that instead of using it and being done with it, he actually had to concentrate on it.

Danni's eyes shot open, probably upon feeling the foreign energy enter her body. Youngblood merely smiled grimly in reply, "You had almost nothing holding you together—except willpower."

Which didn't make any _sense_. Why the hell did she have all that extra energy if she couldn't even use it to keep herself alive? He paused that thought. She wasn't really alive at the moment. After-alive maybe?

"Now," He didn't give her much of a chance to comment on his statement, although judging by her silence she didn't have much of a mind to do so, "Are you going to tell me what happened to you?"

--

Green eyes slid away from Youngblood, unable, or unwilling to meet with resolute, stormy grey ones. Why did she have to tell him? It wasn't any of his business! She would have survived on her own. Somehow.

Danni closed her eyes, unwilling to answer to the ghost's hissed 'tell me'. However, blocking out all sight proved an unwise decision. As her thoughts turned inward in an attempt to ignore the boy, she became acutely aware of the warm energy that was currently holding her body together.

No, she wouldn't have survived. Every pulse of the warm, wild power told her that. She'd only managed to hold herself together after the fight with fading strength and the power of her will. Although that would have worked for a while, it would have not been enough to escape the confines of the neighborhood. It would have not been enough to even move from that tree.

She would have been found. Discovered.

If she had tried to escape, using up that lingering power—she would have ended up just like the over-grown dog that had attacked her, a puddle of goo as her unstable body fell apart molecule by molecule.

A shiver wracked her frame as she realized just how close to dying she had come. The distinctive feel of Youngblood's energy was holding her together now, but all she could think of was death. She'd never been that close to death before—not even when she'd been on the run. Not even when she'd woken up to find half her body covered in a thin layer of ectoplasm had she ever been so afraid.

"Danni…?" The whisper was soft, accompanied by a faint tightening of the hand around her wrist.

It had felt like the end, for those few seconds huddled in that tree, feeling the last dregs of her energy slip away. She didn't know where it all went, one minute she was fighting with the…thing, and then right after she'd delivered the after-death blow there was…nothing. A shock maybe, she remembered what seemed to be small lightning bolts crackling across the dead beast's claws. It managed to swipe at her, just before it dissolved into a puddle of goo, and it was after that attack that everything went crazy. First it had just been a faint drain on her already low stores, but as the seconds flew by it began to grow at an exponential rate, soon leaving her with nothing but her will holding the unstable molecules of her body together.

She abruptly pulled her mind out of the memories, latching instead onto the concerned hand and the presence of the other ghost. She'd barely had a few years on this earth, not nearly enough. She didn't want to die yet!

She didn't…want to die…

Didn't…

--

Youngblood had stopped trying to pry answers out of her when she'd started shaking. It was when the little droplets of water began to pool at the corners of her eyes that he realized just how far out of his league he was. He'd just sat there, looking at her in both shock and a little fear. What was he supposed to do? He'd never had to deal with tears before. Not since…

Not since he was alive.

He couldn't remember much about that time, the fuzzy time before he awoke in the ghost zone. Occasionally there were snippets, hazy memories called up by some event or statement, but mostly there was nothing. He'd never before remembered anything clearly.

Until now.

It was a white room. Plain, sterile, filled with beeping machines and a single, large white bed. He was watching from the cracked open door, watching as the woman on the bed held onto the man, could hear the same sniffling, hiccupping sounds, see the wet tears glinting in the bright, unforgiving light.

"I don't…want to die…" The whisper was not from the memory, but from the girl that he'd deemed his friend. Her hand tightened around his squeezing it with a strength that seemed too much for her small size. Mechanically, almost without thinking he did what the man had done for the weeping woman. His free hand lowered and absently started stroking her hair, the action had seemed to comfort the woman he remembered, and he could feel the small shivers die under the ministration, even if the crying didn't.

"It's okay…'cause I won't let you."

It was then he realized that for the first time in his after-life, he really did mean what he said. All thoughts of childish games were pushed to the side when he finally understood that this wasn't a game. He'd found his first real friend outside his crew, a friend, not a playmate, and now there was a very real possibility that he could lose her.

He didn't want to lose her. Not when he still had so much he wanted to know. Not now.

And maybe, just possibly, not ever.

It took at least half an hour for the hybrid to fall into a fitful sleep, but Youngblood refused to move, keeping an eye on her vitals as Danni slipped out of the world of waking. At first his transferred energy was just sucked away, into the abyss that seemed to have consumed the available potion of Danielle's strength. But after a while it seemed that the transfusion remained just a little longer, and before long he was able to slowly whittle the energy flow to almost nothing. Whatever had pulled the halfa near the brink of true-death was gone, and all that was left was for the healing process to begin.

Once his presence wasn't necessarily needed anymore he quietly, gently slipped his hand from hers and moved away from the occupied piece of furniture. Satisfied with her safety, for the moment, the pirate ghost took the opportunity to settle down. To try and look back and find when things changed so much. There wasn't much time that it could be—he'd met the girl just a little more than twenty-four hours before. It had to be something within that period.

When he'd first arrived through the portal, she'd just been a pretty face, a fellow ghost that shared his appearance as a child. He'd thought of her as a playmate, just as he had with the other halfa, but while Danny nearly required force to play along (and even Youngblood could tell that he was the only one actually having fun) after the rocky start Danielle had nearly as much fun as he did. The time between the chase and the end of the fair, when she showed him around town, acted as an interpreter, and just let him experience what it was like to be alive again, he wouldn't trade it for anything.

Wasn't that what friends really were? A person who you enjoy spending time with, and who liked spending time with you? And they'd had fun; even she had admitted it before the magic show that had ended the day on a somewhat sour note. Was there anything more to it? Did there have to be anything deeper?

On that note, Youngblood decided that he didn't have to really understand it. Danielle was a friend. His first outside his parrot and his crew (both of which weren't with him out of any sort of affection, merely a desire to cause mischief) and someone worth protecting. It made sense that he'd refuse to let True-Death take her. There was no reason to try and figure out the logic behind it.

His mind made up, the boy settled, waiting for the morning.

--

"Wake up. Vladdikins! Wakey-wakey!"

The billionaire and Mayor of Amity Park groaned and attempted to stuff his head under the pillow. The extra layer of super-expensive custom-made head support didn't do much to block out the computerized voice of the love of his life. As nice as it would be to hear Maddie actually speak like that to him, he wanted to go back to sleep. Or at least close enough so that he could pretend that the computerized hologram was flesh and blood. And then get back to his favored dream where he ruled the world, Jack Fenton didn't exist, Maddie Fenton was Maddie Masters, and little Daniel was at his side, learning from him, helping him, idolizing him…

Unfortunately, sleep was not forthcoming, and eventually he gave in trying to ignore the holograms' voice. "What!?" He demanded grouchily, sitting up in the king-sized bed with a sharp enough movement to dislodge the white cat that had been curled up at his side. Maddie-cat hissed indignantly at the action, before huffing and finding another pillow to sleep on. Vlad just gave the animal an annoyed, bleary eyed stare before returning his attention to the slightly transparent hologram woman that had materialized in the room.

The ever-present blue jumpsuit covered the woman, modeled after his college-friend and One True Love, except the mask was pulled down revealing short cropped reddish-orange hair and blue eyes. After Vlad repeated his query the hologram flickered and the woman spoke, her speech halting since it was created through a voice synthesizer and not true vocal cords, "One of your monsters resurfaced in the living world, Darling. We managed to get a location from the tracer before it was destroyed."

"…You woke me up for that?" Vlad sighed, slightly annoyed, but too tired to get angry at the computer. After all, he had informed her to let him know when one of his pets found his wayward daughter. The fact that he was exhausted thanks to a combination of jetlag and ghostly activities wouldn't be enough to override the orders. On any other day it would be fine…Both Phantoms were a pain in his side even now, picking the one day he was asleep in the middle of the afternoon to show up. He didn't even know which one it was; the tracers wouldn't activate unless they either ran into Daniel or Danielle, and depending on the location it could possibly be the information he'd been waiting for. "Well? Where was the signal from?"

"One of the smaller districts in Tokyo, Japan, Sweetie. We couldn't get a more precise location because it was destroyed rather quickly."

That definitely ruled out Daniel. As far as Vlad knew, the little badger was currently at school. He hadn't heard the almost daily wail of the ghost siren recently, so there was no reason for the boy to not be attending to his education. That left Danielle.

As he woke up further, finally giving up on getting back into dream-land, he found himself impressed at Danielle's stubbornness. She was still alive and kicking, and apparently had managed to find her way all the way to the land of the rising sun. The fact that she'd managed to kill his ghost-beast before it could transmit the precise location also spoke in the clone's favor. She was either stabilizing on her own, or had managed to discover another way around her little problem… Either way would prove to be rather interesting to research when he got her back into his possession.

"Maddie? Be a dear and book the next direct flight to Tokyo, and make sure it's First Class."

"I'm sorry Vladdikins, but your schedule is full until next Tuesday. And no, you can't cancel. You also have a Town Meeting in half an hour."

"Butter Biscuits…" The millionaire muttered, rising from the bed and heading to the closet. His voice floated from the open door. "Book the first flight on Tuesday then."

A/N: Okay…I was wrong about the Next Time…z-z I reworked the plot (again) and this is how it came out. It's short, but I like the ending point. Yon-kun and Danni's talk will be in the next chappie, promise!

The good thing about the whole plot revision is that I now know how the story will end! And everything else between here and there. There actually isn't much left—as ya'll can see the plot is starting to heat up pretty quickly. In the remaining days between now and when Vlad goes to Japan we'll have another heist, and Kaito will have discovered some interesting tidbits about the green goop he found. Anyways, events are gonna speed up from now on.

Urg, I hate jetlag...It CAN make you sleep until 5 in the afternoon...trust me. That's why Vlad was sleeping in the middle of the day z-z he just got back from a business meeting or something. I just reeeaallly wanted to wake him up n.n;

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it!


	15. Chapter 15 Puzzle Pieces

Chapter 15

Danni was honestly surprised that she woke up the next morning. It was depressing to think about, but she'd been sure she'd fade into a puddle of goo like her brothers before her. She felt utterly exhausted, but that crazy, terrifying sucking feeling was gone, and so was the warm tingle of a foreign energy she'd fallen asleep to. All her limbs felt to be in working order, not even sticky and clammy like they usually felt after averting a meltdown, and judging by the lack of gloves covering her hands, she had reverted from her ghost form sometime during the night. There was something strange though, a cold, almost pins and needles feeling. It was almost like intangibility, but she couldn't be intangible, she barely had enough energy for conscious thought, much less ghostly abilities.

Her eyelids were extremely heavy, and greatly resisted her orders to open, but eventually will won over fatigue. Everything was fuzzy, bleary, and for a moment the world seemed to spin—Danni bit back the bile growing in her throat, forcing the world to stabilize before using her aching muscles to push into an upright position. Her arms trembled terribly, and it was only a cold, small, but surprisingly strong hand on her shoulder that kept her from collapsing back into a lump on the couch.

She lifted her heavy head, blue eyes meeting with relieved grey, framed by sea-green hair and an emerald sweatshirt. Youngblood, her memories of the past few days supplied. She opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing, but as soon as the first syllable was formed he quickly muffled it with his free hand, shaking his head.

Confused, Danni tried to follow his just as puzzled stare. At first she thought he was staring at the arm chair, the largish one, placed near the window, but eventually the cause of his attention became apparent. A small shape slunk out from behind it, and she realized with a start it was a child. Tea brown hair, and narrowed blue eyes, the girl was staring down at something cupped in her hands, something small black and metallic looking. Panic began to build—she'd been found! She had to get out, move on. It was a shame, but she'd find somewhere else to sta—

There was a tap on her shoulder and she swung her head too fast; it left her dizzy. Youngblood was holding her hand up, letting her see that, well; she couldn't see it, although she could feel his grip around her wrist. Relief flowed from the panic; she was going to give the ghost a big hug once this was all over. Once she could stand by herself. The pins and needles feeling made sense now, Youngblood had used his invisibility to keep her from sight—_but why isn't he invisible?_

"She can't see me." The words had her glancing worriedly back at the little girl, but she hadn't so much as twitched when the ghost spoke. Youngblood must've caught the confusion in her eyes before he just shrugged, "I don't know why either. She's a kid. Kids can usually see me."

Without warning he abruptly dropped her hand and the support left her shoulder, sending her reeling for a moment before she managed to find the support of the back-rest. She felt rather than saw the invisibility fading away—the girl was still studying the black thing in her hand—and there was the faint, washed out form of an intangible Youngblood. In less than a moment he dove into the girl, her blue eyes fading to grey and it was the ghost that looked up, directly at Danni.

"She's been snooping about for the past half an hour." Youngblood answered by means of explanation, raising the girl's hand and eyeing the black thing she'd been studying so intently. Danni hadn't even started on her demand, so she was surprised when he answered it, "I would've gotten rid of her earlier, but I wanted to know what she was looking for. What's this thing??"

It was so weird to hear Youngblood's voice from the mouth of a very human _girl_, though it was overlaid by what she assumed was the girl's normal speaking voice. Danni shoved the thought out of her mind, instead studying the thing that the girl—Youngblood—held out to her. It didn't mean anything to the hybrid, just a weird box of plastic and metal, about the size of her thumb. She shifted her shoulders in what she hoped was a shrugging motion, hoping it came out as more than an oversized twitch, "I—have no idea." Her voice caught after the first word, but after that it came out stronger, although she sounded just as tired as she felt, "She lives next door."

"With the guy who blows things up?" Although the girl's face had looked like it had a permanent frown, Youngblood managed to seem brighter at the comment, a grin breaking out, "There was a loud explosion and a lot of black smoke from the house over—I think there's a big hole in the wall now."

"Yeah…" Danni had to fight back a yawn now that the crisis was over, and resist her body's demand that she go back to sleep to regen, "Could you—"

"I'll take her back over. I have lots of practice making it seem like a dream." Danni felt she didn't want to know what he meant by that, or how he would have gotten that practice. As long as she didn't have to worry about discovery then she really didn't care right now. She wondered what the girl was doing over here, the old man obviously knew the people who lived here since he gathered the mail and everything. Maybe he'd asked her to come get something. Maybe that black thing, which Youngblood tucked securely in the girl's pocket.

"I would really like that explanation when I get back."

Danni sighed when the ghost-in-a-girl's-body started walking toward the door, closing it behind him. What was she going to tell him? Should she tell him? Youngblood hadn't been anything except a pest at worst, and a rather enjoyable companion, perhaps tentative friend at best.

_He did save my life_.

--

When Youngblood returned after dropping off the kid in the living room of the old man's house, he wasn't surprised to find Danni'd fallen back asleep. At first he was annoyed—he'd been gone all of five minutes, and she was probably faking the sleep anyway, to get out of explaining—but those thoughts were quickly swatted away. He could tell she was tired; she probably wouldn't have woken up period if he hadn't had to turn her invisible when that strange girl came into the attic.

A _really_ strange girl, that one was. She hadn't seen him for one thing—that only happened with adults, no matter how mature the kid was. Sometimes adults would see him if they were acting particularly childish, and the limit was around high school if he took yesterday's fair into account, but for little kids…

And the way she felt when he overshadowed her…he shivered at remembering it. The body had felt strange. Weird. _Wrong._ He couldn't explain it. Stiff perhaps, locked. Normally when he overshadowed someone it was just like slipping into a costume, but with that one it was…was…like the costume had been two sizes too small. Height wasn't even the issue here, he'd overshadowed huge people, and small kids before and he'd _never_ run into that…wrongness before.

He hoped she wouldn't come back today. Not until Danni could deal with the girl herself. He did not want to overshadow her ever again.

--

Ai woke up with a pounding headache. As little bits and pieces of her earlier activities came back she had to force down panic. She'd been in the Kudo house, picking up her equipment and then…and then…

She couldn't remember. There was no pain to indicate she'd been knocked unconscious, no lingering fuzziness or feelings that would indicate she'd been drugged. The last memories she'd had were blurred and a little fragmented, swamped with fatigue, and then she was here.

"Ai-kun? Are you up?" Agasa poked his head through the door and belatedly she realized she was in his living room, sprawled out on the couch. She was confused—she'd been expecting to wake up in a holding cell, perhaps even an interrogation room. She'd woken up with no memories of how she'd gotten here, when she should have been in the Kudou home, a situation that screamed abduction to her (justifiable) paranoia.

"Professor?" She asked uncertainly, putting the back of her hand to her head as if to stave off the headache. Rationally she knew that it didn't really do anything lessen the pain, but it made her feel productive.

"You looked so tired earlier; you didn't even greet me when you came in." She felt a twinge of annoyance, she was an adult, he didn't need to be worried, but it was easily smoothed out. It was a common reaction unfortunately; the Professor had only known her as a child, after all. Still, his answer came off as overly condescending to her ears. She quickly brushed it away; at least the answer proved that she'd made it back here, by herself, and not through other less savory means. She did not remember walking back, and she didn't have a history of sleepwalking, so the entire thing was a mystery. She HATED mysteries. Kudou could have all of them for all she cared.

"How long was I asleep?" It was around eleven when she left, and according to the clock on the wall it was around three. The professor's answer would let her know how long she'd been…indisposed.

"Around three hours. Is everything okay, Ai-kun?"

"Yes, yes." So an hour. Less if she factored the time she remembered checking Kudou's house. That wasn't much time for nefarious deeds. Somewhat mollified, Ai fended off the professor's further questions. She didn't feel sick. It must have been a temporary spell. Eventually Agasa got the hint and let her vanish back into the basement lab to tinker with the small, squareish item she'd found in her pocket.

--

_Hungry…_ Danni became aware of the sharp pain as she pushed off the effect of rejuvenating sleep. It was a good sign, it meant she was healed enough to notice something other than that crippling tiredness lurking in the background. A decent meal, not to mention another long, uninterrupted nap, and she felt like everything might be okay.

Maybe.

Danni rolled off her makeshift bed and to her feet, swaying as she fought to keep standing. The sudden movement sent blood rushing to her head, vision momentarily swimming dark and a headache forming.

The attic was dim, the only light coming from the sliver of moon through the dirty window. Apparently she'd slept the whole day, and maybe even the next considering she still felt like she could conk out for a week at least. Unlike last time, Youngblood was nowhere to be seen. It was empty, not a shred of ghostly aura in sight. He'd probably gotten bored of sitting around, she figured. A few shaky steps led her to the stairs, and she managed to get down them without falling flat on her face, with no little thanks to a white-knuckled death grip on the hand railing.

Moving sapped her energy, but hunger drove her on.

Halfway down the main set of stairs—the huge grandiose ones leading to the main entrance—she saw light. It wasn't just the moonlight leaking through the windows in the kitchen, spilling out into the hallway and playing across the wooden floor. It was a soft yellow light from the living room, down the hall, running parallel to the stairs. She peered down toward the half-open door, considered checking it, but then her stomach reminded her of her priorities.

_Youngblood can wait._

She could hear him chattering as she turned into the kitchen, not bothering with the light, the moon was enough. Plus, this side of the house faced the neighbors, and a lit window would attract attention. The living room wasn't a problem—there weren't any windows.

Snagging the entire box of jerky, along with a can of beans—there wasn't much here, she preferred to buy a little at a time, so she always had her unofficial wages saved up, just in case. That thought made her freeze in mid step—what day was it? She couldn't afford to miss taking the paper route on Fridays. She wracked her brain, trying to remember, the last time had been—right, the day before the fair. In that case she was fine, unless she really did sleep an entire week, which she doubted.

Danni absently munched on the jerky, heading through the kitchen to the connecting door to the living room, and her mind started drifting toward hamburgers. A huge, juicy Nasty Burger to be specific. The thought made her stomach growl painfully—and the jerky tasted like shoe leather in comparison, but she couldn't afford to be picky. Maybe tomorrow she'd hop down to the McDonalds for the 100 yen menu. It was too bad Youngblood couldn't be seen by adults, or she could send him for food.

The brightly lit living room was painful in comparison to the rest of the house. Once her eyes adjusted she found Youngblood sitting in front of the couch on the floor, a pile of random items sitting spread out in a loose ring around him. He looked like he'd ransacked the house and gathered all the interesting toys in one spot. Youngblood currently had his nose buried in a book—probably filched from the library upstairs. Hopefully.

Wait a minute, since when could he read Japanese?

Scattered among the books seemed to be various costume items, wigs, masks, and the like along with a soccer ball. There were a few other things, but Danni didn't recognize them. "I hope you plan on putting those back."

She was too tired to scold him about rifling through someone else's property, or deal with his annoying skeleton—it seemed to have found him again, and was currently perched on the ghost's shoulder. Was it a parrot now? She crossed the room and plopped down on the couch, ignoring the glare directed her way by a bone white parakeet.

"Danni!" –Youngblood.

"Halfa-brat!"—that was the bird, before fingers clamped down on his beak, soon followed by a whispered, "What did we talk about?" from Youngblood. Yeah, that was definitely the dog she'd met a few—was it really only a few days ago?

Youngblood grabbed a ribbon, a bright pink one, no less, and tied the parrot's beak shut, using it like a crude muzzle. It would take little effort on the skeleton's part to snap it, but it seemed content to glare at both Danni and Youngblood in turn, coupled with muffled, unintelligible grumblings.

"Sorry about that." The ghost said when finished, "I hope you don't mind me snooping through your house. You've been out all day, and a ghost needs something to do."

_My house?_ "As long as you put it back. And it's not mine." The sounds were somewhat distorted by the stick of jerky she was working on tearing apart.

"It's your haunt right?"

She paused, considering the statement. It was true in a sense. "It's not mine. I just hang out here." A family lived here once; a family will probably live here again. She was just here in the meantime. She didn't have the right.

Youngblood gave her a blank look, shrugging, "Your haunt, your stuff. It's the rules." Before she could say anything else he suddenly picked up one of the wigs, "You won't believe the stuff I found! Wigs, tons of makeup, bodysuits—someone really liked to play dress up."

Danni snickered at the bright pink, curly wig the ghost plopped onto his head. It didn't really go with the grey skin or the eyes. He looked silly.

"I've even found these rubber masks and a fake ID." The ghost continued his identification of the various items. He was holding up a wallet, brown, slim and leather. "I can't find the wig for it though. It was stuffed in with the rest of the costume stuff."

Youngblood tossed it over to her when she asked before settling back into his book—The Night Baron. She remembered that book, a good portion of the library consisted of books by the author of it. That particular one was in English, which explained Youngblood reading it. The skeletal parrot was waving a bony wing in front of the ghost's face, letting out an annoyed sigh when it didn't garner a reaction. Danni suppressed a smile, flicking open the wallet.

The first thing she noticed was that it looked like it had been swiped from some innocent passerby's pocket. Money, credit and bank, along with subway cards, receipts stuck in the change pocket—the works. The second thing she noticed was that the ID photo looked familiar. The first thing that came to mind was that magician she kept running into, but that didn't ring right. The hair and face were wrong. There was something else that she'd seen…

And the name.

_Kudou Shinichi._

"Where'd you find this?"

"I _told _you, with the rest of the costume stuff. There was a box in a closet in one of the spare rooms."

Which was the perfect place to hide something, come to think of it. Anyone who snuck in looking for valuables would take one glance at the box filled with wigs and latex masks and clothes and look elsewhere. The thing that didn't make sense was why would it be here? It wasn't due to expire for another two years, and there was still money and the other essentials with it.

_Shinichi…I've heard that name before. I've seen that face before._

Danni set the half gone bag and empty can on the coffee table, jumping up, with the wallet in hand, and made a beeline for the stairs. She flicked the light in the library—no windows—and headed toward the desk. Aside from the computer it was empty, and she glared at the not-so-dusty corner where she _knew_ a picture frame had once sat. She hadn't been here in a while, but she remembered seeing that picture.

She placed the folded leather on the top and pulled open the main drawer, there was something that looked like an address book, a couple spiral bound notepads, paperclips and other things typically found in a desk. Her searching hand landed on something heavier than the notebooks, shoved way in the back. Pulling it out, she set it up right next to the open wallet, the thin black finished wood frame surrounding two people.

It wasn't them. The man looked similar enough that she'd peg them as related, but he was far too old. Danni sighed and put it back in the desk. No luck there. She remembered that face. It was different…smaller…

The memory slipped away as Youngblood floated through the floor. "What's up?"

Frustrated, Danni flopped back into the high backed chair. "Nothing. I just thought I recognized the picture."

"You think it's real?" Youngblood settled down on the desk top, to the side of the keyboard, legs dangling over the edge.

"The last name matches' the house's nameplate." She muttered into her arm, which was slung over her eyes. "And it's current."

Danni heard cloth shifting, and silence hung for a few moments before…"You feeling any better?"

"Tired." She sighed. She'd hoped he'd forget about that."

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

She really didn't want to talk about this. But he did help her out earlier with that girl. Not to mention last night. But how much should she tell him? Admitting her instability…it was a weakness. A weakness that could be exploited.

But…

"…I'm unstable." She decided on the simplest explanation, trust ing the fact that he _had_ helped her out last night, sinking even further back into the chair, "Using too much energy cause my body to degenerate. As for last night…I'm not sure why it was so bad." She hadn't really used much to fight off that dog at all. She'd been fine until it bit her... a ghostly vampire dog maybe? If that were the case then the effect shouldn't have lasted after she killed it. She still remembered that horrible sucking feeling long after Youngblood had brought her back.

"I figured that out." Youngblood's answer surprised her, "What I want to know is _why._ You have a haunt. Your energy is rooted in it. You shouldn't have such a bad problem! Even if you just recently claimed this place you still shouldn't be having—" He trailed off at her surprised look, grey eyes wide, "You really don't know?"

Of course she didn't know. Other than her brothers, she'd never heard of a fully formed ghost having stability issues. And what did he mean by rooted, and what did having a haunt have to do with anything?

"_Everyone _knows about it." The child ghost was looking at her like she grew and extra head, "New ghosts have stability issues when they are first created, until they claim, or create a haunt to tie down their energies. When a ghost loses their haunt the problems come back, but you still have yours."

Which might explain why her problems managed to settle down once she did. Still…

"That's not it. I'm not new. I literally _am_ unstable." She groped to find the words, "I'm not natural—"

"Of course not. You're a halfa." Oh look, even the parrot had to throw its two cents in.

She shot it a glare. She was _trying_ to explain here. She didn't have to. Come to think of it, why was she again? She just met the ghost.

"Look, forget about it. I'm going back to sleep."

"Danni—!"

She was already at the door, hand on the light switch, "I'm not real okay? I'm a _clone._ The others dissolved into goop already. I just happened to take longer to die."

She didn't look back to see his reaction, just flicked off the lights and went back upstairs.

--

Youngblood resisted the urge to follow her upstairs, ignoring his parrot's delighted preening at Danni's anger. He shot the skeleton a dirty look—that last comment wasn't fair. It just shrugged unapologetically.

"Maybe I should lock you in the brig." He muttered. He didn't understand why it hated the girl anyway. Sure she looked similar to the annoying halfa, had a similar name, but she wasn't that…halfa…

'_I'm a _clone.'

Danny. Danni. Daniel. Danielle.

_I feel stupid now._ It had been staring him in the face all along.

But…did it change anything?

He shied away from that thought, not wanting to consider it now. Instead he latched onto the whole "clone" idea. Was it possible? Obviously, if Danni was telling the truth. He knew some ghosts had to ability to clone themselves, but they generally didn't have an individual will. Or change genders. Or spontaneously become younger than the original.

_I want answers._

But he didn't want to make Danni even more upset as is. Maybe…

An idea unfurling in his mind, Youngblood left the house, heading toward a certain ghost portal in the park. Time to annoy some answers out of a certain no-fun goody-two shoes halfa hero. If he had a clone, Danny should know about it.

--

A/N: Not dead. I'm not really happy with this chapter, but I'm annoyed with sitting on it, so here you go.


End file.
